Can I Eat In Peace?
by R.N.Walker
Summary: Just a small one-shot of Yuma and Astral having a conversation over breakfast.
1. Chapter 1

I love the conflicting interactions between Astral and Yuma. But I don't think there are enough comical scenes between the two. This was just one that popped into my head. Guess when it happened :)

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><p>School was about to start, but for once in, like, ever Yuma was able to sit down and enjoy a quick breakfast. This morning he would have cereal, something really quick and easy to make. He found a bowl and fetched himself the milk from the fridge.<p>

"You're going to be late for school," Astral said, floating behind him. Yuma didn't feel like telling him off that it was just cereal, he needed something to eat, and he was always late for school. So he just sat down and poured himself a bowl.

"What is that?" the blue figure asked curiously, indicating the boy's breakfast.

"It's a bowl of cereal," Yuma said in between spoonfuls.

"Bowl of cereal?"

"Yeah," Yuma said, returning back to his food. "Now can I eat in peace?"

"What's a bowl of cereal?"

Yuma sighed loudly. He then began explaining it like his was talking to a four year old. "It's cereal," he picked up the cereal box, "and milk," indicating the carton, "in a bowl."

The boy went back to eating. "Where did the cereal come from?" Yuma actually contemplated whether it was better to just keep his mouth shut. "Cereal comes from the store."

"Where does the store get it from?"

"I don't know," admitted Yuma, "From the farm."

"Where does the farm get it from?" Astral wondered.

"From the field – where it's grown." Yuma added the last bit with a tone suggesting this was the end of their conversation. Astral remained silent as he watched his partner put the dish in the sink.

"Where does the milk come from?"

"From the store." Boy, this was getting old.

"Where does the store get it from?"

"From the farm."

"So it's also grown in the field with the cereal?"

"No, milk comes from cows." Yuma corrected. "Oh," Astral said, like he understood. Yuma rolled his eyes and headed for the door.

"Where do cows get the milk?"

Why didn't he just keep his mouth shut this morning?

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><p>Please leave a review! R. out!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

I hadn't planned on making this but…

I've decided to turn this one-shot into a series of one-shots based off of real life events (I don't know why but the scenes just pop into my head randomly when I do something). That being said, guess what I got _four_ of today :)

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><p>"Hurry up, Yuma!" Akari shouted impatiently from downstairs. "We're late!" Said boy was still getting ready up in his room. He dashed about looking for his jacket. His invisible friend watched by the door.<p>

"Where are you going?" Astral asked as Yuma was putting on his sneakers.

"To the doctor. I have to get a shot today." Astral had seen enough late night movies to know what those were.

"Why do you want a doctor to kill you?" the blue being asked with only a hint of concern. Yuma's eyes widened in shock.

"Not get _shot_, get _a shot_!"

Astral raised an eyebrow. "What is a shot then? I take it it doesn't involve bullets."

"Of course not! The doctor gets this needle and injects vaccine, which makes sure I don't get sick later on. It hurts, but it's for the best in the long run."

"Vaccine? Is that medicine?" Yuma nodded, glad his partner was catching on.

"Kinda. I don't know what exactly it is but they inject some liquid into you that has these dead bacteria or something. Your body recognizes them and when the live bacteria enter your body, it can fight them off."

Now Astral looked appalled. "You place dead organisms inside you so that you may live?"

"When you put it like that…wait, what am I saying? The body gets rid of them anyways. It's natural 'cause it happens all the time."

"So the doctor is going to shoot you with a needle to give you medicine?" the floating being clarified.

"He's not going to shoot me!"

"I don't see how they're different," stated Astral, "A foreign object is piercing your skin and inflicting pain in order to cause something within you."

"No, bullets and needles are nothing alike. You shoot bullets to try and kill people. You inject needles in order to help people. There is a huge difference between them."

"So there's no correlation between the two?"

"Exactly."

"Then why are they both referred to as shots?"

Yuma honestly had no answer for that. Instead, he played it off by hurrying downstairs to catch up with his sister.

Astral hung back for a while, watching the boy leave. "Observations Numbers 37 and 38: Being shot doesn't always result in death; and humans are willing to go through pain if it means they won't suffer later." He shook his head at the slight paradoxicality of it before floating after his partner.

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><p>That's it for now. Thanks to .Computer for the ending idea; and a big thank you to everyone for your support. I don't know how often I'll update this story, so for now consider it complete (I'll be leaving the label as such anyways). I hope to see you again!<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Wow, I didn't think I'd be updating so soon. But I've gotten a few requests to continue this story so I've been jotting some ideas down. In celebration of surviving my first week of school I've uploaded this chapter. Updates will be irregular, but if I'm not too busy I'll try to upload every or every other Friday. Enjoy!

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><p>"Aaah," Yuma sighed happily as he strolled along the pathway in Heartland Park. Astral was hovering next to him, examining his surroundings.<p>

"What's wrong, are you hurt?" he questioned, perplexed by his partner's exclamation.

"Nah, the opposite," said Yuma, "It's so relaxing here in the park. Makes me want to sit down in the grass and do nothing."

"But you could have easily done that at home," the invisible being reasoned, "What makes the park so different?"

"The atmosphere."

"You mean it's not everywhere?"

"No, I mean the mood of the area. How everyone here is happy and having fun. You should try it– having fun."

Astral shook his head, though he did smile at the suggestion. "You make it sound so easy, Yuma."

"'Cause it is. See?" he pointed to a group of small children playing on the slides. "Those kids over there are having fun, and look, those guys are throwing frisbees. So cool! I wish I could play."

"But these activities are so simple to perform," Astral looked around. "How is sliding down a metal platform or catching a tossed discus 'fun'?" The boy shrugged.

"Honestly, I don't know. Maybe it's because of the people we're with." The blue figure glanced back over at the children.

"Observation Number 42: In order to have 'fun' one must interact with the persons around him."

"And enjoy it," added Yuma, "Now let's go see if we can have some fun." As fate would have it, a small yellow Labrador puppy came bounding across the grass toward the two of them. Astral instinctively retreated some ways back.

"Yuma, what is that?"

Said boy laughed at his friend as he crouched down to pet the puppy. "It's a dog. Well, a puppy still. Little guy must want to play with us."

"Why?"

"'Cause he wants to have fun too. Don'tcha boy?" Yuma cooed as he scratched the puppy's belly. The little dog panted happily and barked, his tail waving like crazy. Astral came a little closer.

"Is that 'fun'?" he asked.

"You bet it is!"

"Doesn't look like much," muttered Astral. The dog sat up, eying the spirit happily.

"You try it," the boy encouraged. The blue being hesitantly reached over and tried to scratch the dog's underside. But his hand instantly slipped through the creature. The puppy, however, didn't seem to care and looked to appreciate the gesture alone. He tried licking Astral's hand though his attempts were just as fruitless. Astral gave a small smile.

"Is this all the 'fun' we can have with this puppy?"

"Heck no. We can try playing fetch."

"What's 'fetch'?"

"Remember those boys playing frisbee? It's just like that but with a stick. We throw it and the puppy brings it back." Yuma searched around for a good throwing stick to use. When he found one he threw it and shouted, "Okay boy, go fetch!"

"You have to command the puppy to act?" voiced Astral as the dog bounced off.

"Er, it's not like Duel Monsters if that's what you're thinking. Many people have to train their dogs commands so that they'll be easier to handle. Each command goes with a certain action. 'Go fetch!' means get the item I threw." The puppy came back with the stick tightly clasped in his mouth, his tail wagging expectantly. "You give him one."

"How do I know which command to give him?"

"Any. We passed by a whole bunch of people with dogs a while ago, remember? Just give one of the commands they used."

Astral thought back to when the two of them were in the presence of many dogs and people. The human gave an order and the dog followed. _This must be training,_ Astral thought. Most of the commands he recalled he thought he could figure out what the dog would do. A 'sit!' command would make the dog sit, and a 'come!' command might cause it to follow. But there was one command Astral couldn't figure what the action did. He had overheard it being used by a man in uniform, training his full-grown dog with a large bag. Astral repeated this command.

"Sic' em!"

The puppy promptly turned on his paws and began chasing Yuma around. "Aaaah!" the boy mocked yelling as the dog playfully snapped at his heels. Astral merely watched in amusement, seeing as how no one was in any real danger but was, in reality, simply enjoying the moment.

"So this is what 'fun' is," he mused.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm glad to see that everyone's enjoying this. I want to thank everyone who commented (and even those who don't); you all give me motivation to keep writing this.

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><p>"Yuma, what are you doing?" Astral looked puzzled about Yuma's sudden get-up: he was wearing a large purple cape and top hat as well as two white gloves. The boy grinned.<p>

"Haha! I'm a magician."

"You don't look like a magician," the spirit stated bluntly, recalling the garbs of Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, and Gagaga Magician.

Yuma pouted. "Shows what you know. Weren't you paying attention today when the special guest at school was a professional magician? All the tricks he did and the birds and the cards?"

In truth, Astral had been inside the Ou's Key all day trying to rediscover his lost memories and hadn't paid any attention to Yuma all day. The only reason he was out now was because he decided to take a quick break. "I don't recall," he said simply.

"Then you're in for a treat. I found my old Halloween costume; I'll show you a few magic tricks." He messed with something in his pocket before pulling a clenched fist out. "Watch and be amazed." He opened his hand into a downward cup and placed his other cupped hand beneath it, making the illusion of holding the top and bottom of a sphere. In between the cupped hands was a ring that was floating in midair. "Cool, huh?"

"And how is that amazing?" Astral sighed.

"Uh, it's a floating ring."

"I can see the string tied to your finger."

Yuma blushed at the nearly-immediate revelation of his first trick. "O-okay, I have another." He pulled from his pocket a deck of normal playing cards. He took the cards out of the box and spread them out in his hands, so it looked like he was holding a fan.

"Humans have cards other than duel monsters?" Astral asked.

Yuma practically faltered. "Duh! Anyways, next trick. Pick a card, any card."

"I can't, remember?"

The spiky-hair boy paused for a minute. "Then point to a card."

"And what exactly will this accomplish?"

"I have to guess which card you picked."

"So it's like a game?"

"You can think of it like that. You pick a card and if I can identify it correctly on my first try I win."

"Very well," nodded Astral and he pointed to a card in Yuma's hand. Without looking at the card, Yuma bunched the cards together, shuffled them, then picked up the first card.

"Was this your card?" he asked, holding the three of hearts.

"No," was the floating being's simple answer. Yuma looked surprised.

"Really? Then was this it?" he asked, pulling another.

"No." This went on for a while with Yuma dropping the cards to the floor as he pulled them.

"Which one was your card?" Yuma asked once all the cards were on the floor. Astral pointed to the one closest to him. Yuma looked at it. "That's the very first one I picked!"

"I know."

"But you said that wasn't your card."

"I thought that was the point. You said if you could correctly identify the first card then you win. Since you could not have possibly known what the first card was unless I told you, you could not identify it, thereby preventing yourself from winning."

"Grrrr, you just don't get it."

"You didn't say I couldn't lie."

"Fine, one last trick. It's one that my dad showed me." Yuma promptly took off his key necklace. This somewhat intrigued Astral, wondering what he could do with it. Yuma slowly clasped his hands over the strange medallion and began rubbing them together. To Astral it looked like he was carefully but forcefully trying to ground it into dust. When Yuma suddenly opened his hands there was a faint _pop_ and the medallion was gone. For once Astral was genuinely shocked.

"Where did it go? Did you lose it again?"

"Nope! In fact-" and he reached his hand forward behind Astral's ear, "It's right here," he grinned, holding it in his hands once again.

The spirit actually smirked in amazement. "Now that was impressive. Tell me, how did you do that?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets," said Yuma proudly.

"But you're not a magician," corrected Astral.

"Says who?"

"Evidently you. Assuming only magicians do magic tricks, and they never reveal their secrets, then you couldn't have learned from a magician and therefore can't be one yourself." He paused. "Then that must mean no one can be a magician unless they learn it themselves, which isn't possible without an instructor. So that must mean there are no true magicians in your world."

"You are taking this way more seriously than it needs to be," muttered Yuma as he rolled his eyes, took off his costume and left.


	5. Chapter 5

Wow, an early update! A (sorta?) request by snakeboy33. I hope you all enjoy it!

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><p>Akari looked at the thermometer again. "No doubt about it," she said, "A hundred and four. You're sick Yuma; no school today. Get some rest– you seem to have a really high fever." Said boy was lying in his bed, the covers drawn all the way up to his chin. He sighed, shuffling under his blanket.<p>

"Fine, sis," he said to her, then to seemingly no one added, "No, I'm not glad I'm not going to school. I won't be able to do Kattobingu today!" Akari gave a confused look then shook her head.

"Great, now he's got delirium," she muttered as she went downstairs to find something to make her brother better.

"Do not," Yuma called out weakly.

"What's 'delirium'?" asked Astral, who was floating above him.

"It's when you're seeing things that aren't there," Yuma answered tiredly, "Now will the two of you stop asking questions and leave me alone?" Astral wasn't so sure Akari was far from the truth.

"Yuma, there's only one of me."

"No, there's…wait, when were there three of you?"

"I think you need some rest, Yuma."

"Yeah, okay, I'll just go back to sleep now." Astral watched as his partner snuggled under the blankets. He wondered when Akari would be returning to check on her brother.

"Ah, that was a good nap!" Yuma said some time later, sounding more refreshed. Astral blinked.

"But…it's been only six minutes."

"What?" and he looked at his clock. It read 8:49. "Oh no, I'm going to be late for school!" Yuma cried out.

"Wait, Yuma, your sister said you were to remain in bed!" Astral said in protest, but the boy still made to stand up. However, he was quickly overcome with dizziness and clutched his head.

"Yuma, I said to stay in bed!" Akari, now carrying a bowl of chicken soup, hurried to put the food down and forced her brother back down. Yuma struggled to get back up.

"But Akari."

"No buts! You're going to eat your soup then you're going to get some rest."

"You should listen to Akari," added the spirit. Yuma covered his ears.

"Ah, Astral, stop yelling!"

"This is my normal speaking voice."

"Akari, tell Astral he's too loud," Yuma pointed at the floating spirit, but Akari couldn't see anything. Instead, she stuffed a spoonful of soup into Yuma's mouth.

"Geez, I knew fevers could cause confusion, but this is ridiculous," she muttered, "Good thing I have the week off, though this was not how I planned spending my vacation time." Astral observed his partner downing the soup with a mixture of reluctance and acceptance.

"Feel any better?" he asked once the soup was finished.

"Yeah. The room stopped spinning." Akari had absolutely no idea what Yuma was talking about.

"You okay?" she asked with a hint of worry in her voice. Yuma nodded. "Astral just wanted to know if I was better. I told him the room stopped moving. Now if only he would stop spinning as well." Astral sighed in annoyance, wondering just how long this fever would last. Akari got up to leave. Yuma sat up, looking pleadingly at her. "Big sis, please don't leave."

The older sister froze. Though she had the week off, she planned to finish up on some work down in her room. But she couldn't just leave Yuma like this. She went back and sat on the edge of his bed. "You know I have some work to do."

"I know, but just for a few minutes?"

"Why?" It wasn't that she wanted to get away from her little brother, it was just that Yuma had not asked for her to be with him since he was very little. Akari figured it was the illness making him talk.

"You'll be so far away. You'll be _aaaaaalllll_ the way over there." Yuma glanced nervously at the door like it was a hundred miles away or something (which, thought Akari reasonably, it probably seemed like in his eyes).

"Fine, I'll stay with you," she pouted playfully before hugging him with one arm. Yuma smiled before suddenly drifting off into sleep.

He slept practically all day, muttering occasionally in his dreams and twice getting sudden chills. Twice more did Akari give him some soup to eat before he went back to sleep. By the time the sun began to set, Akari was beginning to nod off when Yuma stirred. Akari jolted awake. "How do you feel?" she asked. Yuma gave a small nod.

"Better."

Akari smiled serenely and got up to leave.

"Hey, sis," Yuma caught his sister's hand. Akari turned. "Thanks for being with me." Akari smiled.

"No prob!" she said (actually, she had left a few times while Yuma was deep in his slumber to go work on some important reports, but there was no need to tell him that).

"I'm glad you stuck by me." Akari smiled again.

_Perhaps_, she thought cheerfully, _Yuma is finally getting better from his fever._

"And you too, Astral," he added.

Well, it was a start.


	6. Chapter 6

"This is so boring," Yuma whined for the sixth time already. He was in the library doing research on a dead guy for his English class. Who cared about some deceased English poet? He didn't care too much about his own; and he was very reluctant to get started on the report.

"Another class assignment?" Astral appeared from out of the key. Yuma groaned.

"Gyah! We have to write a report about something called the seven stages of life," the boy complained. Then he paused. "Say, that reminds me," he looked straight at Astral, "Just how old are you?"

Astral smirked. "I'm older than you would think," he said, somewhat mischievously.

"So you're, like, 100 years old?" the boy guessed.

"I'm not th–"

"200!"

"I'm not that old!" growled Astral. "To be honest, I doubt even I could tell you how old I am."

"Why not?"

"I don't know how long a year is here to my world."

"You mean how a year on Earth is shorter than a year on Jupiter?" Astral had no idea what a 'Jupiter' was but he nodded at the comparison.

"Yuma, who are you whispering to?" Tetsuo, who was working right next to him, wondered.

"Astral. We're trying to figure out how old he is." Tetsuo recalled seeing the spirit only twice.

"He looked a little over our age," he commented.

"So you think he's, what, 14? 15?" But the bigger boy shook his head.

"Who knows for sure. Remember how one human year is seven dog years?"

"Oh, good point."

"I do not understand. I'm not a dog, and what does he mean by that? " questioned Astral, thinking that one year should be one year no matter whose it is.

"He means after one year, a dog ages the equivalent of seven human years," the young boy explained, "Great, now we'll never figure out how old you are."

Astral looked at the computer. "We may not be able to figure my exact age, but perhaps we can figure out my 'stage of life.'" Yuma snapped his fingers.

"Haha! Good idea!" He began typing something. Tetsuo looked over to see what he was doing.

"Isn't this the list of the seven stages of life?" he asked. Yuma nodded.

"Yep! First on the list is the infant stage."

"Does he look like an infant?" Tetsuo said rhetorically.

"Well, he's nak–"

"I'm _not_ an infant," glared Astral.

"Joking, joking," Yuma raised his hands like he was innocent, "Let's see, second stage is the schoolboy stage." The three considered it.

"Well, he is learning about our world," reasoned Tetsuo.

"But I do not voluntarily wish to attend your school," the spirit pointed out.

"Oh, and we do?" muttered Yuma. The other human leaned in to read the third stage.

"The third stage is the lover stage."

"HA!"

Yuma had to cover his mouth after that outburst. Tetsuo shook his head, sighing at his friend's immaturity. "Okay then, fourth is the soldier stage." Again, that seemed about right to describe the phantom-like being.

"But 'soldier' might be a bit of a stretch," Yuma voiced, "He's fighting for his memories, not us." He turned back to the screen. "Fifth stage is the justice stage. What the heck does that mean?"

"Maybe that's when he acquires justice?" suggested the larger student. Even Astral seemed confused what this stage meant.

"If that's the case, then we know Astral hasn't reached this stage yet. He has no justice."

"Justice and tolerance are two different things," Astral remarked calmly.

"Sixth is the pantaloon stage. Wait, didn't we already have the soldier stage? What's with all the military references?"

"Pantaloon, not platoon," clarified Tetsuo, "It's a foolish elder, much like the court jester. We both know Astral's neither this nor the final stage, old man."

"So we gathered that Astral is somewhere between the schoolboy stage and the soldier stage," concluded Yuma. He thought about this for a moment. "Hey, wait a minute! That's about a ten year age gap! You're saying Astral is somewhere between 12 and 22!" He turned to said spirit. "Please tell me you're somewhere within that range."

"As I said before, I do not know my age equivalence to your years."

"Look on the bright side," Tetsuo grinned.

"And what's that?" asked Yuma, disappointed that this whole thing led full circle.

"At least you finally started on your English report."

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><p>Virtual cookies to anyone who can figure out who wrote the seven stages of life (since I actually had to do a report on this guy)!<p>

I hope you all liked this. To be honest, I figure Astral to only be 3-5 years older than Yuma, at most slightly younger than Akari. Still, I wonder if the writers will make a reference to his age sometime in a future episode. And to those of you have given me story ideas, I greatly appreciate them and will try to create chapters for them (or at least incorporate them in some way) as soon as possible.


	7. Chapter 7

The scene before him couldn't be any more peaceful to Astral. The serene calmness of the waters reflecting the glistening rays of the sun. The rhythmic, splashing sounds of the tides as they collided with the sandy shore. The cool breeze that fluttered by, caressing the ocean and creating small waves upon the ocean's surface. The sight looked so surreal, almost familiar to the spirit, like a long forgotten memory realized.

This image was instantly shattered by the yelling of his human partner. "Woohoo! The beach!" Yuma cried, towels and an umbrella in hand as he dashed across the sand.

"Yuma! You didn't help us finish unpacking!" his sister Akari called from the car. But the younger sibling didn't hear as he searched for a good spot to place the items.

"Ah, let him go," Tetsuko said to her friend, "He's been waiting all week for this."

"Yeah, but so have we." Last week, she and Tetsuko found out that they had breaks off from their busy schedules to hang out together. They planned to go out to the beach. Overhearing this, their respective brothers begged to go with them since they had a day off from school that day. And of course it wouldn't be the three musketeers without Kotori, so she was invited to tag along too.

"Oooi, wait up Yuma!" yelled Tetsuo, chasing after his friend while carrying the cooler. Kotori was right behind him carrying her towels. Yuma was already done pitching up the umbrella.

"There, all set," he grinned. Astral came to look at his work.

"An umbrella? Do you expect it to rain soon?"

"No, it's just to provide shade if it gets too hot."

"I thought you said those are what hats are for."

"You can't wear a hat while you swim, silly."

"And you can wear an umbrella?"

Yuma was just about to retort when Akari said, "Tetsuko and I will be further down the beach. If you need anything just yell." And the sisters walked off to hang out together.

"So what should we do first?" asked Kotori. Yuma grinned, jerking his thumb toward the ocean.

"Swimming. Might as well do it now before the tide kicks in." The children hurriedly took off their shirts and pants (since their bathing suits and swim trunks were underneath their clothes) and raced each other to the water. The only one not eager to go was Astral who, unlike the humans, was hesitant to approach the shore.

"Yuma, you don't really plan on swimming in the ocean, do you?" he questioned seriously, thinking back to all the times Yuma swam in the school pool and nearly drowned while trying to reach the other side in one go.

"Course I am. What else do you do at the beach?"

"But you'll never make it!" Astral didn't believe his partner to be this idiotic; he couldn't even see the other side. Not only that, but it felt as if there was something eerie about the sea. But the boy only laughed.

"This isn't like school; it's almost impossible for anyone to swim across the ocean. Relax, we're not going to go out too far." Astral still wasn't too sure but he followed his partner out. He watched as his friends began swimming after each other in a water-version game of tag. Whenever the chaser got too close, the other player would splash water at them to keep them at bay. Yuma splashed just a little too hard, and though he missed Kotori he did catch Astral off guard, almost sending him into the water.

"Watch it," the spirit growled, only a few inches away from touching the surface. The middle-schooler shook the water from his eyes.

"Lighten up, it's just a little water. Don't tell me you're scared of it." Astral didn't reply. "You're scared! No way, stop teasing!" And he began splashing water at his invisible friend who deftly avoided it.

"Yuma, you blind? We're over here," Tetsuo said. The former smiled mischievously.

"Astral's scared of water," he practically laughed. Even Kotori smiled.

"You should invite him to come play with us. Maybe he'll learn to get over his fear." The spiky-hair boy nodded.

"Yeah, come play with us, Astral."

"I'd rather not."

"Come on, play with us." And he began splashing more water at him. Again the blue spirit floated away.

"Don't worry Astral, the water's fine." Great, even the girl joined in on trying to get Astral wet. Yuma laughed as Tetsuo came over to "persuade" him. Since his friends couldn't see Astral, their aim wasn't very close, letting his spiritual partner to easily dodge them. But he noticed that Astral flew just out of reach to avoid the water, his pride preventing him from actually running away from either Kotori or Tetsuo. Yuma grinned as he realized Astral inadvertently joined their game of tag.

However, the boy spotted something out in the water. Though it was far off, there was no mistaking that shape. "Shark!" he yelled, and he turned back to shore. Astral instantly looked over toward the shore.

"Where? Does he want to duel?" It took Yuma a moment to figure out what he was asking.

"Not the person, the fish!" Tetsuo quickly high-tailed it out of there but Kotori, who had been splashing, hadn't heard the cry. And the fin was fast approaching her. "Kotori!" Yuma yelled. Too late did she look up. The boys watched in horror as she was pulled under.

"KOTORI!" they screamed.

A few moments passed before the girl resurfaced, a smile on her face. "Yuma! Tetsuo! Come over here! You won't believe it!" Both boys were just about recovering from their heart attacks. Kotori giggled. "Dolphin!"

"Wha-really?" Tetsuo asked. The green-hair girl nodded enthusiastically. As if to prove her point, the animal stuck its head out of the water, revealing itself to be in fact a dolphin. The two boys laughed embarrassedly.

"What is that creature? And why is it grinning?" Astral couldn't help but notice the dolphin looked to be smiling at them.

"It's a dolphin," Yuma answered as he and Tetsuo swam over, "And I think he wants us to play with him."

"He wants us to play…is that what all animals want?"

"Many of 'em, yeah." The three circled around the aquatic mammal. The dolphin let loose a series of shrill clicks before diving underwater. Tetsuo and Kotori dove after it.

"Wait," Astral called out before Yuma dove under as well.

"What now?"

But again Astral didn't reply. Yuma, serious this time, said, "You gotta' trust me on this." Astral looked a little shocked before a smiling Yuma added, "Come on, let's do Kattobingu together." The spirit nodded and he and his partner plunged into the water.

After a few seconds of bubbles swirling around, Astral found that being underwater wasn't nearly as frightening as he thought it would be. He still moved about as if floating on air. And his vision wasn't greatly impaired, so he could see the human children swimming after the dolphin. Yuma motioned for Astral to follow. The humans played tag while Astral observed his surroundings.

_Humans_, he observed, _are mysterious beings._ He'd never admitted it but he was scared of the human world. Everything here was strange, many things making no sense at all. Humans by far were the oddest creatures, pushing themselves even when the odds were against them. They were naturally headstrong, rarely showing signs of submission. But here before him were three children who willing emerged themselves into a world so unlike their own just so they could play with an animal not at all like them.

Smirking, the spirit hurried over to his friends, eager to discover what makes the ocean, and the dolphin, so irresistible.

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><p>My gosh, I had sooo much fun writing this chapter! I especially want to thank Clare-stovold for the inspiration. Now for confession time– this is not the original version. I had to greatly edit the original version because I wanted to keep the chapter relatively the same length as the others (but as you can see it is still longer). I'm sorry if this version doesn't seem as funny as the other chapters; this was more of an inspirational one for me and some friends. I'll be posting the original (and funnier) chapter up later on this month (the last day of summer, to be precise) along with the next update that Friday. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this!<p> 


	8. Original Chapter 7

This is the original version of Chapter 7. Please enjoy!

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><p>The scene couldn't be any more peaceful. The serene calmness of the waters reflecting the glistening rays of the sun. Seagulls calling out to one another as they hovered in the ocean-salty air. The sound of rhythmic splashing as the tides collided with the sandy shore. The cool breeze that fluttered by, caressing the ocean and creating small waves upon the ocean's surface. The scene looked so surreal.<p>

This image was instantly shattered by the yells of a certain human. "Woohoo! The beach!" Yuma cried, towels and an umbrella in hand as he dashed across the sand.

"Yuma! You didn't help us finish unpacking!" his sister Akari called from the car. But the younger sibling didn't hear as he searched for a good spot to place the items.

"Ah, let him go," Tetsuko said to her friend, "He's been waiting all week for this."

"Yeah, but so have we." About a week ago, she and Tetsuko found out that they had breaks off from their busy schedules to hang out together. They planned to go out to the beach. Overhearing this, their respective brothers begged to go with them since they had a day off from school that day. And of course it wouldn't be the three musketeers without Kotori, so she was invited to tag along too.

"Oooi, wait up Yuma!" yelled Tetsuo, chasing after his friend while carrying the cooler. Kotori was right behind him carrying her towels. Yuma was already done pitching up the umbrella.

"There, all set," he grinned. Astral came to look at his work.

"An umbrella? Do you expect it to rain soon?"

"No, it's just to provide shade if it gets too hot."

"I thought you said those are what hats are for."

"You can't wear a hat while you swim, silly."

"And you can wear an umbrella?"

"…N…no," the boy said, confused where this was going. Just then, Akari came over, already in her bathing suit.

"Tetsuko and I want to sunbathe first. You and your posse can go swimming if you like."

"Alright!" said Tetsuo, who overheard, "Last one to the ocean is a rotten egg!" The children hurriedly took off their shirts and pants (since their bathing suits and swim trunks were underneath their clothes) and raced each other to the water.

"Hey, no fair, you guys are faster than me," laughed Kotori, who was last to enter the water. "So what should we do first?" she asked as she caught up to her friends. Yuma grinned and splashed water at her, and thus began their water-version game of tag.

All was going pretty well with the group (Astral watching the kids play) when suddenly the green-hair girl was pulled underwater, and not by either of the boys. "Kotori!" Yuma looked back, worry etched on his face. Even Astral was beginning to get concerned. But no more than a few seconds passed before the girl resurfaced.

"You won't believe it!" she smiled, "It's a dolphin!"

"Wha-really?" Tetsuo asked. The green-hair girl nodded enthusiastically. As if to prove her right, an animal stuck its head out of the water, revealing itself to be in fact a dolphin.

"Eeee-eee-eee-eee!" it greeted the group playfully before gently pulling Kotori back underwater.

"What is that creature? And why is it grinning?" Astral couldn't help but notice the dolphin looked to be smiling at them.

"It's a dolphin," Yuma answered as he and Tetsuo swam over, "And I think he wants us to play with him."

"He wants us to play…is that what all animals want?"

"Many of 'em, yeah."

The two dove after Kotori and the dolphin. After a few seconds of bubbles swirling around, Astral found that being underwater wasn't much different than above surface. He still moved about as if floating on air. And his vision wasn't greatly impaired, so he could see the human children swimming after the dolphin. Yuma motioned for Astral to follow. The humans continued their game of tag with the aquatic creature now.

"Yuma, what is that noise it keeps making?" Astral, who evidently didn't need air to talk, asked, referring to the squeaks and clicks the dolphin kept making. Yuma signaled to his friends his needing to resurface, and the four went up together. After refilling his lungs, Yuma answered his friend's question.

"It's echolocation. Dolphins use it so they can see underwater. Bats use it too so they can see in the dark."

"Why don't humans use it?"

"Because we don't need it."

"You don't?"

"No."

"So you purposely trip and stumble around in the dark at night?"

Yuma embarrassedly looked away as the dolphin leaped out of the water and sprayed water out from its blowhole. The three marveled at how the water sparkled in the sun, briefly creating a small rainbow. "So pretty!" Kotori marveled at the spectacle. They played with the dolphin some more; even Astral seemed to have a good time "swimming" with it. It wasn't too long, though, when the dolphin gave a squeak of farewell and swam off into the deep ocean.

"That…was fun," Yuma said tiredly after the three of them swam back to shore, exhaustion from all that swimming kicking in. His friends, huffing, nodded in agreement.

"Dolphins are interesting creatures," the spirit said, "Observation Number 57: Dolphins are the ocean's equivalent to a puppy."

"Dolphins…aren't…puppies," Yuma said before flopping onto his back. A shadow came over him and he opened his eyes to see his sister standing over him.

"You look tired. Want some ice cream?" That got her brother up in a heartbeat.

"You bet! Where?" Akari pointed to an ice cream stand not too far away from the beach. The five of them walked over (the three younger ones dripping wet and covered in towels) to the stand and ordered their frozen treats. Yuma and Tetsuo got chocolate ice cream cones, Kotori got vanilla, and Akari and Tetsuko got strawberry ice cream. Astral looked at the desserts.

"This ice cream…it looks like frozen milk."

"It is. It's frozen milk mixed with sugar."

"…Where does the sugar–"

"You are _not_ starting that again!"

"Who is he yelling at?" Tetsuko whispered to Akari. The latter sighed.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Then to her brother said, "Do you not like the ice cream?"

"It's fine!" replied Yuma rather irately before licking some more. But he licked a little too quickly because he suddenly grabbed his head and said, "Ah, brain freeze!"

"I was unaware the human brain could freeze solid like that so quickly," Astral was truly amazed.

"I-it's an e-expres-si-sion!" Yuma chattered. Again Tetsuko looked confused while Akari smacked herself on the head.

Wanting to spend at least some time together, the five of them huddled near their umbrellas: Kotori resting while Yuma, Tetsuo, and their sisters were building sand castles. Tetsuo and Tetsuko built relatively good castles, but Yuma, in his eagerness to build a better sand castle, kept ruining his and his sister's.

"Grr, Yuma! Stop wrecking our sand castle. Why don't you go–go take a nap or something!"

"Take a nap?" Yuma repeated, "But I'm not tired!" But Akari only glowered. The Takeda siblings laughed.

"Come on, Yuma, you can sleep under the umbrella with me," Kotori said, padding the towel next to her.

"What's wrong? You're face is all red," stated Astral, looking at his partner.

"I-it's nothing," Yuma answered hurriedly, "Just the sun."

"The sun makes humans change colors?" the spirit asked incredulously. The spiky-hair boy just hurried over to the umbrella. Kotori giggled at the embarrassed look on her friend's face.

"It works best when you lie down."

"I know that!" Yuma awkwardly sat down and lied back on the towel. As weird as it felt to be lying like this to one of his closest friends the toll of swimming in the ocean as well as the heat and the sound of the waves hitting the beach lulled Yuma into a peaceful slumber.

Some time later Yuma awoke, only to discover he couldn't move his body. "Wha-?" He opened his eyes and saw the rest of his body covered by sand. The sandy cocoon didn't even budge when he tried to force his arms and legs free.

"I didn't expect it to be this firm," Astral muttered nonchalantly as he watched Yuma trying to get out. "Maybe it was because they used wet sand?"

"You saw them? Why didn't you wake me?" the boy wailed angrily, still unable to get loose.

"They went through the effort not to."

Yuma's struggles must have caught the others' attention because they came over laughing. "Fine mess you're in now," Akari grinned. Her sibling growled.

"Not funny! Could you get me out now?"

"Not until we get some pictures of this." And she and the others took photos of the trapped Yuma before the sun finally began to set over the close-knit friends.


	9. Chapter 9

Long chapter. Please enjoy!

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><p>"Phew, that should be the last of them," Yuma wiped the sweat away from his forehead. At that moment, his spirit friend appeared from the key around the boy's neck and looked at the mess before him.<p>

"Boxes?" He looked inside one. "What is all this stuff?"

"It's a garage sale. We're selling all the stuff we no longer need."

"So you're selling the garage because you no longer need it?"

"What? No!" exclaimed Yuma, "It's just called a garage sale." Astral looked back at the boxes.

"So what is all this stuff you no longer need?" Yuma shrugged.

"Old toys, books we don't read, clothes– basically things we no longer use but other people might. There's a saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure."

"Then why do humans have 'trash' in the first place?" Astral was lost on the expression. The boy sighed and went back to setting up the table.

"Akari got called into the office today, so Obaa-chan and I will be running the sales," he talked as he took some junk out of a box, "I can't do much when that happens, so if you want I could–"

"Oh Yuma," Haru, Yuma's grandmother, called from the front door. The boy looked over.

"Yes, Obaa-chan?"

"I have some more boxes up in the attic that are much too heavy for me. Could you bring them down?" Yuma looked ready to argue, thought better, sighed, and jogged over to his grandmother.

"Make sure no one takes our stuff," he called over his shoulder.

"And what exactly can I do if they decide to?" Astral said back, but the boy had already retreated inside the house. Haru, however, picked up where Yuma left off and continued placing the items on the table. Not much time later, two people were walking down the sidewalk, heading for the sale.

"Oh, hello," Haru looked up at her first potential customer, "Oh, Naoko, good morning to you."

"Good morning Haru," her friend Naoko smiled back. Haru noticed that a small boy was standing to the side and slightly behind Naoko.

"Naoko, who's that adorable little boy with you?" Haru beamed.

"This is Jun, my grandson. His family is visiting for the weekend. We're just out on a morning stroll together." Jun looked up timidly at Haru before quickly shifting his green eyes toward the boxes. As of all children of the age of six, he was naturally inclined to see what was in them. Astral noticed the child heading for the boxes. "So, Haru, how have you been?" The two old women walked off to finish their conversation.

Jun was on his tip-toes, desperately fishing around in the box that Yuma earlier brought out. He eventually pulled out two discarded toys: one that used to be Yuma's old action figure hero and the other that was an old princess doll of Akari's. Seemingly not satisfied, the child reached in the box for more. As Astral earlier pointed out, he couldn't do anything to stop the boy from taking Yuma's stuff; so he decided to watch and to tell Yuma what had happened.

After Jun's small arms were filled with old toys, he glanced up to see if the grandmas were watching. Astral was certain the boy was attempting to steal the items. But to his slight surprise, while the boy did walk off, it was only to behind the table, so he couldn't be spotted. He dumped all the toys onto the ground save for the action figure and the princess doll.

"So Princess, what is it that you need?" Jun said. Astral was confused, looking around briefly for this 'Princess' he was addressing. Then Jun spoke again, this time in a higher-pitched voice, "Captain Hiro, please save me! The evil Oruk is planning to take over the planet again."

"Fear not, Princess! I shall protect you!" Astral stared wide-eye at the boy. Was this the "split-personality syndrome" he had heard about on television once before? Wondering for the child's sanity, he hovered over to the boy. Jun picked up another toy, a black monster-like action figure.

"You'll never see your princess again Captain Hiro!" Jun spoke in a deeper voice. He then tossed the monster toy and the princess doll to the side.

"No! Curse you Oruk." Jun picked up a fourth toy, a stuffed bipedal tiger, and held it up to 'Captain Hiro' like the two were talking. "Tora, Oruk just kidnapped the princess and flew off with her in his spaceship. We have to rescue her."

"Alright, let's use my ship," Jun half said, half growled out loud. Astral was beginning to wonder just how many split-personalities this child had.

The spirit heard the front door open and turned to see Yuma struggling to carry a stack of boxes outside. "Yuma," the blue being floated over to said boy, "That boy…I think he needs help." Yuma set the boxes; they fell with a muffled '_thump'._

"What boy?" he asked, and Astral pointed to Jun sitting behind the table. After bending down to get a better look Yuma grinned. "He's just playing with some toys. That's nothing to worry about."

"But he's talking to himself, and occasionally with different voices," Astral explained.

"Yeah, it's called 'Pretend.' It's a game we play when we're children. You think of a story then you act it out using whatever you have available. You can play with many people or by yourself. And there's no right or wrong way to play because you make the rules up as you go."

"A game with no set rules?" Astral couldn't believe that. All games needed rules or else it was just pointless action. "Besides, this 'Pretend' looks rather foolish to me. The dolls can't talk and apparently they reside somewhere in outer space. And I don't see any spaceship at all."

"You may not, but through the mind's eye it's there," replied Yuma, "Hey, watch over him, would you? You could learn a thing or two while I go finish helping out Obaa-chan."

"But Yuma, I–" But Yuma dashed off again. _Mind's eye?_ he wondered. Was it different from normal eyes? Shaking that thought off, he returned his attention to the boy. By what he gathered 'Tora' and 'Captain Hiro' were on an alien planet being attacked by monsters.

"There's too many of Oruk's minions," Tora growled.

"We can't give up," Captain Hiro said, "We have to save the princess." He kicked over a small plush which Astral assumed was one of Oruk's minions. Tora didn't respond as he headbutted another minion down. Slowly but surely more and more minions fell. Astral, despite himself, was pleased to see that 'Captain Hiro' and 'Tora' were winning. Then, suddenly, another monster, one that looked like a mechanical beetle, appeared.

"Hahaha!" Oruk laughed from some ways away, "You'll never make it past my pet MechaBeat-All!" Astral didn't think it looked that impressive.

"Captain Hiro, let me battle it," Tora offered. He pounced on the robot's head, but MechaBeat-All shook him off. The invisible observer reconsidered that maybe this battle wasn't going to be as easy as the others. Tora tried slashing, biting, punching, and kicking the bot, but nothing seemed to work. MechaBeat-All, however, landed what could have quite possibly been a deadly blow if the toy were living. Nonetheless, 'Captain Hiro' rushed over to his fallen comrade.

"Tora! Speak to me."

"C-Captain H-H-Hiro…" Tora coughed weakly. Even Astral hovered in, not quite able to hear all of Tora's whispering. "I…I'm afraid this…is the end f-for me…"

"No, don't say that Tora."

"You have…to save the…princess without me…" And then he was still. Captain Hiro was silent. He glared up at the mecha.

"You killed my best friend," he seethed, "For that, you will be destroyed." And he leaped up and connected a powerful kick to the mecha's head. The mecha collapsed, making _bzzt! bzzt!_ sounds. Captain Hiro rushed forward, toward where the evil Oruk was. "Oruk, show yourself!" the hero roared.

"Glad you could come," Oruk laughed, "But you'll never find the princess."

"She's behind him," Astral muttered out loud, unable to stop himself. Great, was he actually interested in what was going on? Captain Hiro paused.

"She's…behind you, isn't she?"

"What!" Oruk gasped as the princess peeked from behind, still imprisoned, "How did you know?"

"Your evilness can't trick me." Astral thought this explanation sounded absolutely ridiculous; not only that but once again unable to control himself he said aloud, "Why exactly did Oruk kidnap the princess?" Again there was a small pause from Captain Hiro.

"Tell me, Oruk, why exactly did you kidnap the princess?"

"How else am I to conquer the world? With the princess in my dungeon, no one can stop me from ruling as the new king."

"You're wrong, I will stop you. Prepare yourself." What happened next caught Astral completely off-guard: it seemed that the toys were doing battle on their own, without the need of Jun to pick them up; in fact, he wasn't even around. Not only that, but the toys no longer resembled toys at all; it was really Captain Hiro punching and kicking at the monstrous form of Oruk. The fight was intense, neither battler able to get the upper hand over the other. Astral thought that perhaps the captain finally met his match.

"Jun, it's time to go."

The scene changed instantly: Jun was back, and he was holding the figures in midair. Naoko and Yuma were standing at the other side of the table. Jun hurried over to his grandmother, placing all but the Captain Hiro figure on the table.

"Grandma, c-can I…?" His grandmother and Yuma easily guessed what he wanted to ask.

"Ah, go on, you can have it," grinned Yuma, "I could see how much fun you had with it." Jun beamed before following after his grandmother. Astral approached his friend, a look of amazement on his face.

"Yuma, for a brief moment it was like when the statues came to life back at the Duel Lodge. It was as if the toys were real. Were they?" Still smiling, Yuma shook his head.

"Nah, they aren't real in the sense you and I are. But they were in that boy's imagination. That's the mind's eye– seeing something that you shouldn't be able to."

"Yuma, is there such thing as a mind's ear?"

"No…why?"

"No reason."


	10. Chapter 10

If there was one thing Yuma could change about this scene right now it would have to be getting rid of the blue spirit who kept pestering him with questions. He and Kotori decided to check out the haunted house attraction that came to Heartland only once a year. In truth, the girl hated haunted houses, but Yuma promised to stick by her the entire time. But it's not easy to put one's nerves at ease when she can hear you making side comments to your invisible friend.

"So these ghosts live in haunted houses?" Astral asked.

"In stories yeah, but ghosts aren't real," hissed Yuma.

"So when you call me a 'ghost' you liken me to an imaginary being?"

"If it'll make you shut up, yes, you're a ghost."

"Yuma…?" Kotori whispered frightfully. The spiky-hair boy instantly turned to comfort her.

"Ah, why don't we go inside already. And don't worry, I'll make sure nothing happens to you." The two approached the large, wooden doors which opened by themselves. As soon as they stepped foot inside a recording of thunder crashing played, startling the green-hair girl. Yuma patted her back, which comforted her somewhat. Astral looked curious.

"Strange, there wasn't any lightning." His partner rolled his eyes. The group continued down the long, deserted hallway. Cobwebs hung from the cracked ceiling, waving in the breeze. Wallpaper was peeling off the walls. The fake remains of rat bones were scattered across the halls. When they reached the foyer, a small horde of bats swooped down over them.

"Aaaahh!" Kotori screamed, covering her eyes, "I don't like bats!"

"Don't worry, Kotori," her friend grinned, "They're fake." He pointed to a hardly-visible cable where the bats, connected to it by a string, slid down. Kotori caught her breath before saying, "I…I guess we can go on."

"Why are you continuing even though she's clearly scared?" wondered Astral as the other two walked upstairs.

"Because that's the point of the haunted house. It tries to frighten you by having things pop out at you or making loud noises. Sometimes light flashes or furniture move to make it seem like a ghost is in the room."

"But if you know ghosts aren't real and how a haunted house operates, how is it frightening?"

"Because of the unknown." That made absolutely no sense to Astral, but he decided to let it go. The children entered a room full of strange mirrors.

"Oh, look at us," Kotori pointed to one to the trick mirrors. Though it displayed their reflections, they were greatly disproportioned: Kotori was short and fat while Yuma was tall and scrawny. The two went around the room checking their reflections in the other mirrors. Astral gazed at them from above, long ago discovering he didn't have a reflection. But he found this just plain odd. Yuma never had this much fun looking at himself in a normal mirror but looked ecstatic at looking at a disfigured reflection of himself.

_Observation Number 47,_ thought Astral to himself,_ Humans don't always take interest in reality._

"Hey Kotori, check this out!" Yuma called from one mirror. His friend came to see but triggered a hidden trap, causing the trap door beneath her to open.

"Aaaaaah!" she screamed as she fell into the darkness below.

"Kotori!" yelled Yuma. He raced to the door and hurried downstairs, Astral hot on his heels. "Kotori! Kotori!" But there wasn't any of a response. He guessed Kotori must be in the basement, unable to hear him. He descended a second flight of stairs and entered what he thought was an underground maze. "Kotori, are you in here?" Yuma shouted. But again there was nothing. The boy was starting to get unnerved. "Okay Astral, let's split up and look–" But Astral wasn't with him either. "A-Astral?" Yuma was really starting to freak out now, "This isn't funny! We need to find Ko–"

He froze when a loud scream pierced the darkness. "Kotori!" and he raced down the corridor as fast as he could. First Kotori got separated and now Astral was missing. Yuma had to admit this was really spooking him. There was another scream and Yuma doubled his speed. Up ahead was a wall, splitting the path into two– left or right? Rushing ahead, Yuma was contemplating which way to turn.

"Yuma! Kotori is–"

"Aaaaahh!"

Astral had suddenly came through the wall, which had scared the boy senseless, causing him to cower on the spot.

"Geez, I hate all these fake bats," Kotori grumbled darkly, walking out from behind the wall and straightening her hair. "They keep popping out everywhere. Hey Yuma, are you…" But when she looked to see what was in front of her cowering friend, all she could see was his shadow on the wall. "Yuma…?"

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><p>I apologize that this story was short, but there are a number of reasons for that: 1, I was rushed when I wrote this (schoolwork and research classes were, and still are, becoming a slight pain and are taking up my time), and 2, I wrote this a while ago but didn't post it (a Halloween-ish story in early August?). Also, I'm afraid that the stories will be put on hold for a while. Normally I have at least two chapters already written out in advance, but with the increasing amount of study I have to do along with my own personal projects I wish to complete, I have been unable to write down anything and am down to my two reserve chapters. So after next week's update (which is also another chapter I wrote some weeks ago but didn't post) expect a delay in chapter updates. See ya!<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

I finally saw a few clips of the dub for Zexal, and for the most part I like them. I personally don't see why people make such a huge deal about the English voice actors; I don't see what's to hate about them (except for whoever did Yusei and Jack in 5D, and even then I don't hate them- I hate the lazy executives who wanted to use the same voice actors from previous seasons as main characters). But I digress. Please enjoy the chapter :)

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><p>Though it happened every year, the children of Heartland couldn't help but get excited. It had snowed last night, so much so that school was cancelled for the day. Yuma and his friends had decided to have a huge snowball fight just outside the city.<p>

"You sure about this?" Tetsuo grinned at Yuma as the latter smiled back.

"You bet! I'll do Kattubingu and beat all of you."

"It's five against one," said Takashi, pointing to himself, Tetsuo, Kotori, Tokunosuke, and Cathy, "To summarize, you don't stand a chance."

"We'll see," said Yuma as Kotori stepped forward.

"So let me get this right: we set up our base here while you get to hide in the woods?"

"That's correct," Tokunosuke answered, "This game is much like Manhunter, ura."

"Then I'll see ya' guys later!" Yuma called out as he dashed toward the trees.

"Good luck," Cathy shyly said after him.

It didn't take too long for him to reach the woods and find a good place to spy on his friends without being spotted. "Yuma, what is 'Manhunter'?" the interdimensional being asked from beside the boy.

"It's a game where a group of people try to find and capture the 'target,'" Yuma explained tersely, "And I'm the target."

"And 'snowball fighting' is a variation of this game?" Yuma nodded once, still keeping an eye on his friends. "May I play?"

"Uh, no offense Astral, but I doubt you can actually do anything. Besides, there's no way I'm going to lose."

"I sense you are a bit cocky of yourself."

"Why shouldn't I? I'm the snowball fighting champ; been it for three years running now. And there's no way I'm not going to lose now." Astral was silent for a moment.

"Yuma, what other games can you play in this?" he asked suddenly, indicating the snow.

"Astral, not now, we're playing this," the spiky-hair boy hissed.

"But it'll take some time for your friends to finish 'setting up their base,'" Astral observed. Indeed, the others were still packing snow into a mound. Yuma sighed.

"Fine, I'll show you some other things we can do in the snow." He retreated some ways into the woods until he found a nice open area. "Snow angels!"

"Snow what?" asked Astral confused. He didn't see anyone or anything out of the ordinary.

"No, I mean we can make snow angels."

"What exactly is a 'snow angel'?" wondered Astral, not too sure what an angel was.

"This!" His partner flopped on his back and began waving his arms and legs. Astral was baffled by what looked like pure idiocy. Then the boy got up, wiped the excess snow off his back, and examined his work. "There, a snow angel."

"It's just an imprint in the snow," the spirit said, "And are you sure that's an angel?" Yuma shrugged.

"That's how my sis and I always did it. Besides, they're easier to make than a snowman."

"Is a 'snowman' made like a 'snow angel'?"

"Nah, it's made more like a snowball." Astral watched as his friend packed snow together into a snowball. Then he began to roll the ball which grew bigger as it collected more and more snow. He rolled it until it was twice as big as his head. "Here's the first part," he said, wiping his brow. He did this twice more, with each snowball substantially smaller than the previous, and then he stacked them. The end result was a mound with three spherical portions.

Astral could only conclude two things: if that was how Yuma thought a man looked like then he most certainly had no idea what an angel should look like; that, and he probably needed to have his vision checked.

Just as Yuma was putting on the last ball there was a muffled _plop_ sound. The duo turned to see a pile of snow near the base of a tree that wasn't there before. "Oh man, the sun's starting to melt all the snow on the trees," sighed Yuma. Despite his sigh he didn't seem that upset. "Help me look for some sticks to use as arms for our snowman." Astral floated off some ways, though he wasn't looking on the ground for fallen branches; he was observing those still attached to the trees.

"Yuma," he beckoned suddenly, "How about these?"

"Where?" Yuma, who hadn't paid attention to what his partner was previously looking at, came over to see and bent down over the spot Astral was pointing to. He didn't find anything. But he certainly felt the cold weight of the melting snow that came tumbling down from above. Stuck under the pile of snow, it took a while for him to get out of it. When he finally did he saw Astral laughing – actually laughing! – at him.

"You t-tricked m-m-me!" he stammered, shivering from the snow that slid down his coat. Astral quickly recollected his composure, though his eyes still held a small hint of pride from his deception. "I-I'll get you for that!" He gathered some slush into his hands and tossed it at Astral, who promptly dodged it and flew away. Yuma followed after him, continuing to throw snowballs at the blue being.

They went some ways before one of Yuma's snowballs caught Astral off guard, startling him into "falling" into the snow. Yuma approached him, a snowball in hand ready to strike. "Got you now, Astral." But the spirit smirked instead. It wasn't until just then Yuma realized his true intent: the spirit had led him straight to his friends' base. And he was now surrounded by them.

"Don't tell me this was your plan from the beginning," muttered Yuma.

"As you humans would say: 'Who's the champ now?'" And he swiftly retreated into the sky, where he watched from above Yuma's friends pummel him with snowballs.

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><p>I hope you enjoyed this. As a reminder from last week, it'll be a while until I update this series again. But don't fret, the hiatus won't last long; it's only until my work schedule is finally sorted out. And for those of you who have given me those wonderful ideas, I greatly appreciate them and will be posting them as soon as I have the time to. Until next time!<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

I small request by Hana13 who wanted a story with Shark in it. I had fun writing this and I hope you all enjoy. Thanks for everyone who's commented; they greatly encourage me!

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><p>"Hurry it up, Astral!" Yuma yelled over at his friend as he dashed toward the newly built arcade, "The free pass giveaway ends in fifteen minutes!" Astral remembered hearing from the boy that in honor of the building's grand opening, for one week only free season passes would be given to anyone coming for the first time.<p>

"I don't see why you didn't get the tickets last weekend when school wasn't an interference for you," commented Astral, increasing his speed a little to keep up with his dueling partner.

"Well, if you woke me up on time as I had hoped–"

"And since when was it my responsibility to account for you reaching your appointments on time? Besides, you didn't ask me to wake you." Yuma growled under his breath, his friend raising a good point. But he was determined to get a pass, even if it was the very last one. Fortunately for him, it was.

"Phew," Yuma puffed, tired from running all the way from his house to the place, "Made it." The two went inside. Unlike Yuma who was excited by the sight, Astral was startled by what was inside. He had been to an arcade before with Yuma and watched as he played games on what resembled large, disproportionate televisions. But this arcade was different– there were far fewer of those "arcade machines." Instead, there were different types of machines as well as chairs with helmets, neon tables, and in the far back was a large, grey wall covered with oddly-shaped projections.

"Are you sure this is the arcade?" the spirit asked. Yuma nodded animatedly.

"You bet! Oh man, look at all the cool new games inside. Let's try out this one first." Yuma walked over to a machine with large glass windows. Inside, Astral could see a large, three-rod claw, and below that many kinds of toys on the floor.

"Was this machine designed incorrectly?" Astral wondered aloud, "Aren't the toys supposed to be outside the box in order for you to play with them?" Yuma laughed.

"Then there wouldn't be much point of a Claw Machine. The goal is to move that claw around and grab one of the toys inside. It's harder than it looks." He swiped his pass card through the machine's slot to start it up.

"_How fast can you grab?"_ A female's recorded voice went off before beginning its countdown from five.

"Kattubingu, ore!" Yuma grinned excitedly as the voice said "Go!" As carefully but quickly as he could, he maneuvered the machine's claw over one of the stuffed animals. "The aim is to get a toy as fast as possible," explained Yuma, "If you're fast enough, you can put in your name for the daily top ten."

"Is being in the top ten the same as being a champion?"

"Kinda. It's more like a ranking system," answered Yuma as he pushed the button to lower the claw. It dropped and snagged the arm of a small stuffed bear in its grasp.

"Cool, I won!" Yuma grinned as the claw released the toy into the chute. Yuma opened it and grabbed the toy. "I think I'll give this to Akari when we get back home."

"Yuma, the machine wants something from you," Astral pointed to the small screen by the joystick. The screen read: _"Congratulations! You made a top score! Please insert name."_

"Wow, first try and made the top ten," Yuma beamed.

"I guess this means only ten people played this machine," Astral joked.

"Shut it," Yuma barked before inserting his name. Since the machine allowed for up to four characters there was just enough for him to put his first name. "Hm, it says I'm ranked as second place. I wonder who's first." He scrolled up the list to see. "R-Y-O. It looks like this Ryo guy beat me by…point five seconds! What? Gah, whatever! Why don't we play another game." He went to the far left side of the room where the Rock Climbing wall was. Three men were there, strapping equipment and harnesses onto the climbers.

"Hey there kid! Do you wanna' try rock climbing?" one of the men spotted Yuma coming.

"Yep!" replied the spiky-hair boy. Astral looked up to see some of the earlier climbers climbing toward what appeared to be a buzzer near the top. He watched as a boy hit the buzzer, sounding it off. A second man looked up as the boy let the harness bring him back down toward the ground.

"Not bad kid," the second man said as he unhooked the boy, "It took you six minutes and forty-two seconds. I'm afraid that's not enough to make it to the top ten." But the boy didn't seem to mind as he grinned and hurried off to play another game.

"Observation number 59: the goal of 'rock climbing' is reach the top as fast as possible." Astral returned his attention back to Yuma to see him all ready to climb.

"Yeah, Kattubingu– one more time!" He grabbed one of the lower handles and pulled himself off the ground. Astral watched from beside him as Yuma made his steady-paced descent to the top.

"Impressive," he said, somewhat amazed by Yuma's agility.

"This isn't too much," Yuma replied quietly, partly because there were more people around but mostly to conserve his energy, "I used to go real rock climbing with dad when I was younger." Astral noticed he reached the top much faster than the other boy.

"That was great kid!" the first man smiled once Yuma was back on the ground, "Five minutes and twenty seconds. That makes you the second fastest one to reach the top."

"Second fastest?" Yuma repeated, shocked, "Wait, was the first kid Ryo or something?"

"I'm not sure what his name was, but that's him right over there," the man pointed. Yuma looked over. Near the air hockey tables was a kid in a very familiar purple coat. Though his back was to him, there was no denying who it was.

"Ryo, Ryoga– should've figured it out," Yuma muttered. He ran over to the older boy. "Shark!" Shark turned around.

"Yuma, hey. I see you've finally got yourself a pass card."

"You too. You're the top player in all the games I've played so far," he grinned expectantly.

"And let me guess– you want to challenge me for my title?"

"Of course." Shark smirked.

"Fine, let's see if you can beat me." He picked up one of the air hockey handles that was lying on the table. "Since we're here, let's play Air Hockey. The rule is simple– the one with the most points when time runs out is the winner." Yuma, grabbing the other handle, agreed. They both swiped their passes. Air rushed onto the table's surface, causing the handles to hover a little bit. A small black puck dropped down from one of the goal slots. A seven-minute timer and scoreboard hologram appeared above the table. "I'll start us off," Shark grinned. He slammed his handle against the puck, causing it to rocket toward Yuma's goal. Astral was surprised by the puck's velocity; it was easy enough to track but its speed was almost hypnotizing to watch, making him wonder why anyone would want to interrupt its graceful, linear charge.

But Yuma did, sending the puck flying off on a tangent. It rebounded off the wall, gaining speed while shooting towards Shark. But he too reflected it. This went on for a minute or two before Yuma finally managed to get a goal. "Yes! Alright!" Yuma cheered.

"The game's not over," his opponent reminded him. Whether because he was too overconfident or he wasn't quite prepared Yuma immediately missed the puck in the second round, tying the scores. Astral couldn't deny that the game became more intense after that; however, neither player was able to score a second goal, meaning the game ended in a tie. "This won't do," muttered Shark.

"How about we play something else. I know!" Yuma grabbed his friend's arm and pulled him over to the arcade fighting machines. "We'll play a one-on-one fighter." Shark nodded, taking a seat behind the Player 1 half of the machine. Yuma sat as well. He wasn't the best when it came to fighting games, but he would play with them at least once with Tetsuo every time the two visited the arcade.

Astral couldn't see the appeal of smashing buttons to make the characters on the screen fight each other. He suspected that if Yuma and Shark had the skills themselves they would personally be the ones doing flips and kicking each other. Alas, they didn't and had to contend with simulating artificial humans to do them. He observed as that the two health bars dwindled down to their remaining pixels, to the point where whoever landed the next hit would win. The two characters circled each other, neither wanting to be careless and get knocked out. But with the timer down to the last fifteen seconds there wasn't much point in stalling any longer. Yuma and Shark had both of their fighters charge each other.

The results were surprising. Yuma stared with his mouth open while Shark had a look of mild surprise. Both fighters had punched each other simultaneously and were now lying unconscious on the ground, resulting in a double knock-out. "Is…is that even _possible_?" Yuma finally articulated. Shark stood up to leave. "Wait Shark, one more game."

"Like what?" asked Shark, "I've already played every game here. Why don't you try and beat any one of my scores if you can."

"No, I'm going to beat you, not your score," the younger boy replied, "It'll be no fun playing against a fake you." Though slightly inaccurate, Shark understood the reasoning and relented to playing one more game with Yuma. Yuma looked around the area before remembering one of the new attractions this arcade had over the others. "I'll race you! There's an indoor go-cart track in the back." Shark stared at him for a good moment before bursting out laughing.

"Hahaha! Are you serious? Well, if you really want to, fine. I'll meet you in the back. Good luck."

"Yuma," Astral addressed his friend as Shark walked off, "Do you really want to race Shark?"

"Of course," Yuma answered it like that was the stupidest question in the world, "Go-cart is no big deal. It's like driving a mini car."

"You do realize that he is far more experienced with motorized vehicles than you? I assume he's had at least a year's more practice. And I don't recall ever seeing you drive a motorized vehicle."

"Hey, I've played enough racing games to get the gist of it." Astral shook his head and floated off to let Yuma gear up in peace. The spirit hoped Yuma was a better driver in real life than in videogames; he remembered too many instances where the virtual racecar went swerving off the track or into a ditch.

The workers at the track prepared the carts for the two boys. Shark and Yuma entered their respective carts. "Are you boys racing or just cruising?" The head worker asked.

"Racing!" Yuma exclaimed.

"Alright, you boys start on the green light. First to complete three laps is the winner." Both boys started their cart's engines. The light flashed from red twice to yellow to…go! Both boys zoomed off, Astral effortlessly keeping up with his partner. Yuma was sort of glad the track wasn't one of those simple ovals; instead, it twisted and turned and went all over the place. The added challenge made it more exciting. But Astral did observe one thing– every time Yuma needed to turn a corner he would slow down. Shark, having had far more experience driving was able to turn them while keeping his speed. It wasn't even halfway through the first lap before Shark got the lead.

"Yuma, Shark is ahead of you."

"I can see that!"

"Is there no way to catch up to him?"

"I'm trying, but I think this is as fast as these carts can go." The spirit quickly realized that as long as they were going this constant speed Yuma was sure to lose. The first and second laps were completed but Yuma was still unable to reach Shark. The former Duel Monster elitist, however, took notice of how far behind his opponent was. He purposely slowed his cart to the spiky-hair boy's speed.

"What's wrong Yuma, I thought you were going to beat me at my own game?" taunted the older boy.

"Oh, I'll beat you Shark. Just you wait and– ahh!" Yuma hadn't been paying attention and collided into a tower of old tires of varying sizes. Shark kept going though.

"Yuma! Are you alright?"

"Ow! Thank goodness for helmets. Huh? Where's Shark?"

"He went on. He's going to win." Yuma wasn't certain but he thought he heard a bit of sting in the blue being's voice. Had Astral been enjoying the race too?

Not wanting to quit now, Yuma put the cart into reverse. "Yuma, you won't be able to catch up to Shark," the spirit said.

"Sometimes, Astral, you gotta' improvise!" grinned the boy. Looking at it from this angle, Yuma could see that the tires made a sort of ramp. And thanks to the irregular shape of the track, if he could gather enough speed he might be able to jump far ahead in the track.

"You'll just crash again!" Astral tried to stop him.

"Kattubingu-" Yuma said as he stepped on the gas pedal and the cart sped forward. The cart's tire caught on one of the smaller tires, giving it just enough air to land on the tire ramp. "ORE!" The cart went airborne, making a huge arc, and it was right then Yuma realized steering in the air does absolutely nothing to turn the car. But the front wheels connected with the ground, jolting Yuma but continued racing forward.

"How did you–!" Yuma had landed right beside Shark, and the latter was thoroughly shocked by his stunt.

"It's not over yet!" Yuma laughed. He could see the finish line, and the two were neck and neck. Astral was gliding restlessly around Yuma, wanting him to hurry up, but Yuma's pedal was all the way to the floor. Yuma lost track of where Shark was, his tunnel-vision only letting him see what was ahead. The line was only 10 meters away…5 meters…1…

A buzzer sounded. Yuma looked up to see who won. The worker stationed at the finish line was scratching his head, talking to some of his coworkers. The two racers climbed out of their carts. "Who won?" Yuma asked the worker.

"To be honest, it looks like it was a tie. You see that number on the front of the carts?" The worker pointed to the front bumper of Shark's cart. On it was a small LED panel which had a glowing orange "1" on it. Yuma looked back at his own cart which also read "1."

"We tied…_again?_" But Shark smiled and turned toward the exit.

"That was fun. Great game, Yuma. You're not a bad driver at all; let's race again sometime." Yuma was about to call him back and suggest another game, but he just couldn't think of any that neither has already played before. In the end, he sighed and waved goodbye to his friend.

"I guess that means I'll never be as good as Shark," he muttered when the other boy was out of earshot.

"On the contrary," stated Astral, "I see it that you are of the same level as Shark, which is quite impressive considering how strong an opponent he is. Perhaps next time you will win." Yuma grinned at his friend's encouragement before looking up at him.

"So…do you think I could beat you in a race?"

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><p>I hope you enjoyed this slightly delayed chapter; I made it pretty long to make up for that. The next one should be up next Friday, assuming no more work is added to my already large amount of schoolwork.<p> 


	13. Chapter 13

Just a quick note– ever since the dub came out I've been debating whether I should switch to using the English names. But in the end I've chosen to stick with the Japanese names. I've noticed that the characters in the dub version have slightly different personalities than their original counterparts, and not wanting to make them out of character I'll be sticking to their Japanese names. Anyways, with that said, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

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><p>It was early Friday morning and Yuma wasn't exactly cheery of having to go to school when he could easily be at home sleeping in his bed. "Hey, Yuma," Tetsuo snuck up behind his friend, grabbing him into a headlock. Yuma struggled for a minute before successfully getting free.<p>

"Hey Tetsuo, what's up?"

"You know what today is, right?" Yuma stopped walking, a confused look on his face.

"No, what is it?" The bigger boy gave a look of disbelief.

"You seriously don't remember?" Yuma thought hard.

"Gah! Don't tell me we have a test today! Oh man, I didn't study for anything. What subject is it in?"

"No you idiot, today is Kotori's birthday."

"Kotori's…birthday?" the spiky-hair boy repeated it like was a foreign word. A grimace spread across his face. "Wait, that's today!"

"No duh. Honestly, how could you of all people forget?" Yuma himself wondered what could have made that important fact slip his mind. Maybe it was from all the worry of the Numbers Hunter Kaito. Whatever the reason, he was still in a jam.

"Good morning guys," a sweet voice called from behind. It was Kotori, happily jogging up to her friends. "Any plans for today?" she asked with a smile.

"N-nope! Nah ah, nothing planned. Sorry," stammered Yuma. Since her back was to him Kotori couldn't see Tetsuo shake his head in slight annoyance. The girl shrugged before heading inside the building. Yuma sighed in relief while Tetsuo also took his leave.

"We plan to hold a surprise party at her house at three," the larger friend said over his shoulder, "I hope you have something by then."

"Don't worry, I will," promised Yuma to his friend's retreating form. When Tetsuo was out of earshot he groaned loudly. "What am I to do?" he muttered.

"You mean relating to Kotori's birthday?" a voice asked. Yuma nodded, turning his attention to the spirit. "By the way," Astral continued, "What is a birthday and a surprise party?"

"Other than the fact it's the day of your birth, a birthday is to celebrate turning one year older. And people hold surprise parties for the birthday person to show how special they are to them. But at surprise parties you're supposed to bring gifts, and I don't know what to give her."

"Why don't you ask her what she wants?" Astral stated, thinking that to be the most obvious course of action.

"Because you're supposed to know them well enough to figure out what they'd want without having to ask."

"Then why is this a problem?"

"Because I don't know what she wants." Astral wasn't sure how to help Yuma before he remembered something he saw from a movie he watched late one night. In it a man was handing flowers, a card, and other things to a woman. While Yuma and Kotori weren't fully grown, Astral figured this must be the same birthday gifts Yuma was talking about.

"Yuma, after school we can go looking for gifts Kotori might like."

"Yeah," said Yuma, "But I still don't know what to give her."

"Perhaps I do." Yuma wasn't entirely sure how Astral could possibly know more about birthdays than him, but he was out of ideas and needed some fast. Once school was over Yuma ran as fast as he could back home to get some spending money.

"Okay, we have half an hour to go to the store and pick something out for Kotori," said Yuma as he left the house, "What should we get first?"

"I believe women would appreciate flowers," Astral recalled. He looked over toward the garden. "Would those do?"

"No, those will not!" Yuma growled, "If we're going to get flowers they have to be from the store, not our own."

"Why?" asked a confused Astral.

"Just because." Astral was beginning to wonder if birthdays were more complicated than Yuma made them out to be; numerous times he's seen small children give hand-picked dandelions to one another. Nevertheless, he followed Yuma to what he oftentimes called a "Convenience Store." Inside were very generic and, at least to Astral, completely miscellaneous items. "Okay, I'll get the flowers, you go see if there are any cards I can give her," Yuma instructed. Astral obliged and floated off to the card section. He was still a little amused that humans had cards other than for dueling or playing. He looked at some of them, comparing their text to what he remembered from the movie.

"Yuma, this one should do," Astral pointed to a red and white card. The boy, carrying a small bouquet of flowers, didn't even look at the card as he grabbed it and made his way to the check out. After paying for it, he stuffed the card into the envelope as he hurried to Kotori's house. He met up with Tetsuo at the front door.

"Oi Yuma," his friend greeted, carrying a small present in his hands. He grinned when he saw the letter and flowers. "Going for the traditional 'buy-something-at-the-last-minute' approach?"

"S-shut up," huffed Yuma. The two went inside and waited for Kotori to come home. Fortunately, the wait wasn't very long because ten minutes later Kotori walked in. Yuma, Tetsuo, and all their friends jumped out from their hiding spots yelling, "Surprise!"

"Oh, you guys!" Kotori beamed. One by one the friends gave her their gifts. Yuma, who was last, handed her the flowers.

"Uh, here," he said. Kotori blushed a little, taking the flowers and smelling them.

"Oh Yuma, these smell wonderful!"

"Oh, and this too," Yuma said, almost forgetting about the card. The green-hair girl opened it and read its contents. Her face went from a mild pink to deep red.

"Kotori, you okay?" asked a concerned Tetsuo. He went over to read the card and burst out laughing.

"Hey, what is it?" Yuma wondered, and he too went over to see. Inside the card, it read:

_It's that time of year_

_Since you came into my life_

_May we have many more moments like this_

_With you right here by my side_

Now Yuma was bright red. "Astral!" he hissed. The spirit, who was observing the scene from behind the group, was unaware of his friend's embarrassment.

Later, after the party really got started and everyone was in the kitchen getting cake, Yuma sulked over to an empty guest room. "Did she like your gifts?" Astral asked, appearing from the key.

"The flowers she did, but what the heck with the card?" he fumed, still flushed from earlier. The blue being glanced at him.

"What do you mean?"

"That wasn't a birthday card!"

"It…wasn't?" Astral thought back to the movie. "But the card the man gave in the movie said something similar."

"Wait, what man and what movie?"

"On the television, a man gave a card and flowers and other gifts to a woman he liked. He said it was their special day. Then the woman pressed her lips to his. I assume that's a form of appreciation?"

"Wait– flowers, card, special day, and a kiss?" Yuma repeated, putting the clues together, "Astral, that wasn't the lady's birthday, that was their anniversary."

"Is an anniversary like a birthday?"

"No, for starters, an anniversary is–"

"Yuma." Said boy turned around to see Kotori poking her head in from the doorway.

"Ah, Kotori!" yelped Yuma as she entered the room, "Uh, s-sorry about the card. Astral didn't mean to–"

She giggled. "Thank you Yuma," she said really softly, "I love the card." Then she stepped forward and pecked him on the cheek. She giggled again at the surprised look on Yuma's face.

She was about to turn and leave when Yuma said, "Wait." Before he could help himself, he hurried over and embraced the girl in his arms. "Happy birthday Kotori," he said sincerely. Kotori smiled up at him before detaching herself and capering back to the party outside.

"Yuma?" Yuma was standing there in a bliss daze while Astral was left to wonder what could be so special about a birthday.

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><p>This was a small request by VileEXE. In truth, I don't think much of shippings, including the canonical ones; but that doesn't mean I look down upon them (except for the outlandish ones, and yaoi). And I wanted to give this a try. Please tell me what you think of it. And no– while this chapter has some YumaxKotori hints in it, I'm not making these two a pair; at least, not until it becomes <em>way<em> more evident in the series.


	14. Chapter 14

"I'm so glad we all got a part in the school play," Kotori smiled happily as she and her friends walked home after spending the entire afternoon after school by the river.

"Yeah," agreed Yuma, "But how did _I_ end up being the Cowardly Lion?" Tetsuo laughed as he slapped the smaller boy on the back.

"Haha, I'll say! But look on the bright side, you could have been a Munchkin." Yuma sighed at the fair point. His key glowed briefly and the spirit within it appeared before the children.

"Still, I don't know if I want to be the Cowardly Lion."

"Who said you are a cowardly lion? If anything, you are a courageous if not impatient boy," Astral stated to his partner.

"…Thanks…I think," Yuma sweatdropped, "But I didn't say I was a cowardly lion, I said I have to be the Cowardly Lion. You know, from the play 'The Wizard of Oz.'"

"What's that?" Yuma stared at his friend as if he said Duel Monsters was just a silly card game.

"You don't know what the 'Wizard of Oz' is?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, you can't exactly blame him," reasoned Tetsuo, figuring Yuma was talking to the invisible being, "He's not from around here, remember?"

"Uh, good point. Sorry, it's just I've known the story so long and haven't met anyone else who hasn't," admitted Yuma.

"So who is this wizard of Oz?" Astral asked, "Does he live around here?"

"No, Oz is a make-believe world," explained Yuma.

"Then how do you know there's a wizard there?"

"Maybe it'd just be easier if you knew the story," muttered the young boy. Kotori grinned.

"That's a good idea Yuma. We can tell Astral about the play we're in." Yuma shrugged.

"Sure, why not. He'll just pester me with questions during rehearsal anyways."

"Okay Astral," Kotori began, looking left toward where she thought said spirit would be at (Astral was behind her), "The story starts with a girl named Dorothy– that's the character I play– living with her dog Toto and relatives in Kansas."

"Is Kansas another fantasy world?" wondered Astral.

Yuma interrupted his friend with, "Kansas is a real place."

"So does this story take place in a real or fictional world?" Astral inquired.

"Just…let Kotori continue." Yuma gave a sign for Kotori to finish.

"One day, a huge tornado appears. Dorothy's relatives are able to run away in time, but Dorothy and Toto are forced to hide in the house, which the tornado picks up and blows it all the way to Oz. There, Dorothy meets Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Glinda tells Dorothy that her house landed on top of the Wicked Witch of the East and so the Munchkins living there are free from her tyranny."

"Truly remarkable," Astral mumbled, though Yuma heard his talking.

"What is?" he asked, causing Kotori to pause again.

"That a house could withstand the wind pressure of a twister and be lifted into the air but not sustain any damage. But how is it that the girl's family quickly detected the tornado while the evil witch failed to notice a falling house?"

"Astral, it's just a story," Yuma sighed. He apologized and asked his friend to continue.

"Dorothy is given the Wicked Witch of the East's magic slippers to protect her from the wrath of her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda tells her to go to Emerald City and talk to the Wizard of Oz if she wants to go back to her world." Kotori paused before smiling sheepishly. "Sorry– I don't remember the order of events after that."

"That's okay, I do," said Yuma, "So Dorothy and Toto follow the Yellow Brick Road and meet the Scarecrow. Scarecrow explains that all he's ever wanted was a brain to think with, so Dorothy invites him to travel with her saying the Wizard can give him that."

"Why would the Scarecrow want a brain? He's clearly able enough to speak and show desires without one. And he can evidently produce locomotion by sheer willpower alone."

"_Anyways,_" the boy growled, becoming annoyed by all the interruptions "The three of them continue on and meet the Tin Man who says all he's wanted was a heart to care with–"

"But the heart's not in charge of emotions; the brain is."

"–And then they meet the Cowardly Lion who wants courage! They get to Emerald City and find the Wizard, but he says he'll only grant their wish if they give him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West. While trying to reach her castle, Dorothy and Toto are kidnapped by her flying monkeys."

"Flying monkeys?" Astral repeated skeptically, "I was unaware monkeys could sprout wings."

"Look, I didn't write the story. If you want to hear it then stop interrupting us." Tetsuo and Kotori, who could only hear one side of the conversation, laughed.

"The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion are able to sneak into the castle with Toto's help," Tetsuo picked up where Yuma left off, "And they manage to rescue Dorothy. Angry, the Witch sets the Scarecrow on fire. While trying to put him out, Dorothy accidentally splashes water on the Witch, which causes her to melt. Free now, the flying monkeys give Dorothy the Witch's broom. They go back to Emerald City, and the Wizard whom I play tells them that they've had what they've always wanted all along. Dorothy asks how to get home and the Wizard says that all she has to do is tap the magic slippers three times. She does and Dorothy wakes to discover everything was just a dream."

"Now do you get it?" Yuma looked up at his spirit friend. Astral nodded.

"I think so. So what you're saying is: a child and her animal companion were forcefully but harmlessly transported to a faraway dimension because of a wind funnel and given mystical accessories that somehow held the power to protect her from a vengeful witch and is told to meet a mysterious person in a distant city to get information on how to return to her world. On her travel she meets an intelligent brainless scarecrow, an emotional heartless tin man, and a brave cowardly lion and finally the wizard who wants to purposely put her in danger so he can have the broomstick of the very person who kidnaps the girl because she wants her dead. The child's friends manage to save her and destroy the witch with apparently ordinary water. Their task completed, they are essentially told they didn't need to have done any of that because they've had what they needed the whole time. _Then the child wakes up_," Astral said the last part like that was the most ridiculous thing ever. "Is that how the story goes?"

"Yes, that's _exactly_ how the story goes," Yuma blurted out, though he couldn't help grinning at Astral's wording of it. The other two humans smiled and the four of them headed home together under the yellow glow of the setting sun.

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><p>This chapter was written in good humor; I'm not degrading the movie by any means as it's one of my favorite classics of all time. I just wanted to experiment with what would happen if you had to explain a fantasy story to someone who only knows how to see reality. And it seems kind of pointless to add it now but all credit to original works goes to their respective owners (of which I am not one of).<p> 


	15. Chapter 15

Sorry for the delay; I've tests and projects all due near the same time and I didn't want to post this until I was done with most of them. This chapter was requested by TheRoseShadow21 who made a very fair point in one of my earlier chapters. I can't believe I didn't think of this then!

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><p>Even though the day was sunny and there was hardly a cloud in the sky, Astral emerged from the Ou's Key to hear Yuma complaining about something yet again. "What could possibly be the matter this time, Yuma?" the spirit asked. He didn't remember the boy getting in a fight with his friends nor losing any meaningful duels in the last few days. In response to the invisible spirit's question, Yuma held up a small paperback book. "That book is giving you problems?"<p>

"No, it's that I got to go to some stupid book reading at Ukyo-sensei's house."

"Why?"

"It was class assignment I needed to do but I…uh…"

"Performed the assignment at the last minute and received a dismal grade?"

"…maybe…"

"Then it seems to me this is your own fault, so you should stop complaining." Yuma made a noise between a growl and spluttering but looked up to see he was nearing the doorstep of his teacher. He also noticed two other people by the door.

"Tetsuo? Kotori? What are you doing here?" Said friends looked over toward the approaching Yuma.

"Yuma?" Kotori said in surprise, "We were, um, well you see…"

"We heard you had afterschool reading with Ukyo-sensei, so we figured you didn't want to be bored all by yourself," spoke up Tetsuo.

"Reeeally?" Yuma grinned mischievously, "Or did you two get a bad grade on the assignment as well?"

"Wha-no-tha-we-" Tetsuo stuttered, "Grr, you know that making sure you stay out of trouble is a full-time job, right? We're just here to do our job."

"Y-yeah," Kotori agreed embarrassedly. Yuma decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. He walked forward and knocked on the door.

"Just a minute," a voice called from inside. There was a scuffle and the sound of a chair being moved before Ukyo finally opened his front door. "Oh, Miss Mizuki, Mr. Tsukumo, and Mr. Takeda, I'm glad you could come. Unfortunately, I'm a little busy this afternoon."

"Um, Ukyo-sensei?" Yuma was more concerned with the small bundle his teacher was holding, "Is that…a baby?" Astral gazed over the boy's shoulder. Indeed, a small human infant was wrapped tightly in the blanket Ukyo was holding. The spirit had seen infants before but he was never this close to one. The baby seemed to be struggling to get out of his binds.

"Yes, it is a baby," Ukyo answered, "You see, a close colleague of mine and his wife had to go to a very important conference and he had asked me if I could watch his son for the weekend. And the request was so sudden I completely forgot about our book reading. I see I'm going to have to reschedule it for some other time."

The professor began pondering when was a good time for the children to come again when Yuma suggested, "Hey sensei, if we help you look after that baby, will you not make us have to come to the book reading?"

"Yuma!" Kotori chided as she elbowed him in the ribs, "stop joking around."

"What?" asked Yuma while he rubbed his aching side, "I'm serious. We won't have to come, right Ukyo-sensei?" Ukyo thought about before stepping aside.

"Okay, Yuma, I'll take up your offer. Honestly, I don't see how taking care of a baby is in any way related to your schoolwork, but it couldn't hurt for you kids to learn about accountability. Come in." The trio entered, caught off guard somewhat by the interior. While not cluttered, the living room had a few books scattered about, and in the center of the room was a small pen for a crib. Ukyo stepped forward, handing the bundle to Yuma before grabbing a wallet off the couch.

"I had needed to run a few errands before you came. Could you please look after the baby until I get back; it shouldn't be longer than a couple of hours. I trust everything to be in order when I come back." The kids gave him their word, and the teacher felt a minuscule more confident of leaving his house and friend's baby in the care of his three young students. The moment Ukyo walked out the door, Yuma turned to Kotori and offered the toddler to her.

"Here you go."

"What? Why are you giving him to me?"

"Well, you're the only one who knows how to take care of him."

"What makes you think that?" Kotori demanded.

"Because you're a girl." Both Astral and Tetsuo visibly flinched at the audible "SMACK!" that resonated through the room.

"Why, I never…" growled Kotori. Astral glided over to Yuma's fallen body to see if he was okay. Fortunately, the baby wasn't injured during the fall.

"Observation Number 48: Females hold more strength than perceived," Astral commented to himself. Yuma shook the stinging sensation on his face away and stood up.

"So what do you think we should do?" he asked, "What do you do with babies?"

"Honestly Yuma," Tetsuo moaned, "You signed up for this and you don't even know what you're doing? I say since the tike isn't crying we don't have to worry about much for now. Maybe just let him play with his toys or something."

"Okay!" said the spiky-hair boy, and he promptly sat the baby down by a stuffed doll. The baby slowly reached out for it and tentatively tugged it, as if testing his own grip. He pulled harder and when the toy was in his reach he placed the doll's arm in his mouth. "Seems our work here is done," grinned Yuma, "We can just let him play with–"

"WAAAAHHHHH!" There was no warning or anything, the baby just burst into crying. The children instinctively covered their ears from the loud wailing.

"What did you do to him?" Astral asked startlingly calmly, though Yuma could sense the bewilderment in his voice.

"I didn't do anything!" Yuma yelled.

"Then explain that to him and tell him to be quiet."

"It doesn't quite work that way, Astral. He won't listen. Babies aren't like pets; you can't tell them to be quiet on command."

"Then how do we silence him?"

"We need to figure out what he wants," cried Yuma.

"Maybe we need to rock him," Kotori suggested, thinking Yuma was talking to her and Tetsuo. She bent down, scooped the babe up, and began rocking him. While his volume went down, the baby was still crying uncontrollably on her shoulder. "It's not working," Kotori said.

"Maybe he's hungry," Tetsuo said. Yuma dashed to the kitchen to see if Ukyo-sensei left some baby food out. He found a small jar, out but not open, and a spoon and ran back to the living room. He opened the lid and scooped out some food. "Open up," he cooed to the infant. The baby sniffled some more, opened his mouth, and sucked on the spoon. He opened his mouth for more and Yuma quickly refilled the spoon.

"Just when I think humans couldn't be any more peculiar," Astral stated, "So your first moments in life involve others having to guess your needs?"

"Basically," answered the spirit's partner. When the baby's eyes began to droop, the boy remembered now was the time to let the child nap. "Hey Kotori, try rocking him again." His friend did and the adorable sight of the baby cuddling up against her chest _barely_ made up for the earsplitting crying from earlier.

"Finally quiet," whispered Tetsuo. He made some room in the crib for the baby to lie down in. Kotori set the infant inside and pulled a small blanket over him. "Now what should we do?"

"Let's think this through," Yuma said. He looked up to see Tetsuo and Kotori staring at him. "What's wrong?"

"Did you just say 'let's' and 'think' in the same sentence?" snickered Tetsuo.

"Be quiet!" Yuma quietly barked.

"But you're right," the bigger boy agreed, "Let's see, after he wakes up, he'll probably want to be fed some milk." Kotori went to the kitchen this time.

"Here's a bottle in the fridge," she called back softly. The boys nodded and for an hour and a half they let the baby sleep. And just as Tetsuo predicted, the moment the toddler woke he began whimpering for something to drink.

"Here you go," Yuma said, picking up the baby and giving it the bottle. The infant quickly started suckling, all the while keeping his eyes fixed straight over Yuma's shoulder and up some. "Good thing there isn't much left to do," Yuma stated, "Otherwise, I don't know what I'd do until Ukyo-sensei returned."

"Yeah, he should be back any minute now," agreed Kotori, "Then maybe we all could just hang out for the rest of the afternoon. What do you think?"

"Neat! Great idea!"

"Okay, what in the world is he staring at?" Tetsuo finally pointed out the baby's sudden interest in the ceiling. The other two turned their heads to look in the infant's direction.

"Who knows," answered Kotori, "I don't see anything."

"Yeah, I mean, it's almost as if he's looking at Astral but–" Yuma stopped mid-speech. "Wait a minute, I think he is staring at Astral!" Astral, who hadn't been interested at first, looked down at the baby in Yuma's arms. Indeed, the infant was staring straight back at him.

_He sees me?_ the spirit questioned, and floated away to test if the baby would follow. Sure enough, he did, a look of confusion and wonder in his tiny brown eyes.

"Yuma, how can he see me?" the blue being asked. But even Yuma seemed perplexed.

"I'm not too sure. I-I do remember hearing from somewhere that babies are able to sense things that are supernatural; though, it's never been proven or anything."

"It's evidently true," muttered Astral, now flying back and forth, trying to break away from the infant's transfixed stare. But the babe continued to watch him, giggling at the way he flew about. "Why is he so interested in me?" Unsure himself, Yuma repeated the question to his human friends.

"Must be because the kid's never seen anything like Astral before," reasoned Tetsuo, "I bet most normal people would be staring at Astral like that too if they didn't know who he was."

"I'm back!" someone suddenly called out. The trio turned to see Ukyo returning back home. "My, my, I'm surprised! My house is still standing."

"Told you we could do it," smirked Yuma, who hurriedly gave the toddler to his sensei. Ukyo took the baby, rocking him a little. He frowned then turned his gaze toward Astral.

"You didn't do anything to my ceiling, did you?" he asked a little worriedly.

"Nope, nothing. We don't know why; he's just been staring like that for a while now. Maybe you've got a ghost in your home or something," Yuma teased. His teacher laughed.

"Well, I better change the little guy," he said, "His parents will be here soon."

"Why would he wish to exchange the baby for another?" wondered Astral, "Considering it's not even his."

"No, that's not what he means," Yuma clarified.

"Oh? Then what is it?" But Yuma tactfully avoided the question and asked if the three of them would like to hang out at the park today. The other two agreed, and the friends raced outside, glad to be free from yet another bothersome burden called responsibility.

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><p>Wow, I feel like this certainly isn't one of the best chapters I have written so far. And I made it kind of long, too. Oh, well.<p>

I was hoping this day wouldn't come (at least, not this soon) that I would have to say this, but, alas, it has: This series is coming to a close. I'm sorry, but the workload just isn't slowing down, and next semester I will be taking even more classes. I just won't have the time to come up with ideas and upload a new chapter every week. And I really do wish to get back to my other stories (I know they aren't nearly as popular as this one, but I really miss working on them). I still have around six to seven more chapters planned, including one that will be uploaded on Friday, so it's not yet the end. But I'm afraid I won't be accepting anymore requests (except for those who've already given them to me).


	16. Chapter 16

It was supposed to be something simple. Yuma and Astral were on the rooftop like they always were whenever they wished to relax. Some of Yuma's cards were oh-so-carefully placed in front of them, and the two were browsing through them to see how best to make their deck better. Well, Astral was studying the cards; Yuma's mind was elsewhere, his eyes searching over the city. Suddenly, Yuma spoke out. "I spy with my eye something red."

Astral glanced up briefly, giving the boy a look of slight worry before returning his gaze back to the cards. "…Good for you."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Guess!"

"Guess what?" Astral asked, abandoning the notion they would be finishing improving the deck.

"What I spy."

"Why?"

"Because that's how you play I Spy," explained Yuma. Astral sighed audibly.

"Since when were we playing what you spied?"

"No, it's called I Spy."

"I know, I said what you spied," Astral articulated. Yuma shook his head.

"No– I. Spy. And just now we were playing. I spy with my eye something red. Now you have to guess what I spy." Astral quickly glanced around, really just trying to find the first red thing he could see.

"Is it…the car?" he guessed wildly.

"Nope. Guess again." The spirit growled before shifting his focus to the left.

"The stop light by the corner?"

"Nuh uh. Guess again."

"Your grandmother's watering pail in the garden?"

"Sorry. Guess again."

"How many times do I have to guess?" Astral was beginning to get annoyed. They were supposed to be working on the deck. And for all he knew Yuma could be making fun of him.

"Until you get it right. Would you like a hint?" The invisible being would rather stop this pointless game but he nodded yes, figuring the boy wasn't going to let this end otherwise. "Look down." Astral did so and noticed Yuma's older sister Akari lying back in a lawn chair and reading a magazine. She was making marks in it; apparently the information within it was of high value to her.

"Is what you spy the magazine she's reading?"

"You're getting warmer," replied Yuma.

"No, I feel the same temperature. Perhaps you're the one who is feeling hot."

"Expression…" Yuma groaned, "It means you are close to the answer."

"Oh." Astral looked closer. "Is it the pen she is writing with?"

"Ding ding ding! Got it!" the boy grinned. Relieved that was finally done with, Astral was about to return his attention to the cards when he sensed Yuma staring at him.

"What is it now?"

"Well, it's your turn."

"My turn?"

"Yep. Since you got what I spied, I now have to guess what you spy." What sounded like a growl of frustration escaped Astral's lips but he complied and looked around.

"I spy something," he said at last. There was an awkward silence.

"…And?" said Yuma .

"Aren't you now supposed to guess what I spy?" the spirit turned to him.

"You're going to have to give me more than just 'I spy something'."

"Fine. I spy a tree."

"You're not supposed to tell me what it is!" yelled Yuma, "Just describe what you see. And pick something else 'cause now I know the answer."

"Very well. I spy–"

"'–With my eye'," Yuma interrupted, "That's how you say it."

"I refuse to say that incorrect statement. I have two eyes, as do you." The middle-schooler rolled his eyes.

"Never mind. What do you spy?"

"I spy a feathery creature that resides itself within the limbs of a tree. My observations confirm that what I spy can fly faster than a human's walking pace and feeds upon insects in both the air and in the ground. Unlike humans, its offspring come from eggs, which I'm told must not be touched lest the mother never return to the nest. Its voice is of a higher pitch than most animals, allowing it to produce somewhat melodious cries."

Yuma was about ready to hit himself. "Way. Too. Much. Pick something else, and this time describe it using only one word, like a color or shape. Geez, this shouldn't be as hard as you're making it." Astral closed his eyes, thinking.

"Can it be anything I choose?" he asked the human.

"As long as it's something we can both see, sure," answered Yuma. The spirit opened his eyes again.

"Alright. I spy something peculiar." Yuma shook his head groaning, thinking that wasn't much of a clue; but he at least gave his friend credit for condensing it to one word.

"Is it…that funny looking branch over there?"

"No. Guess again."

"Is it the Obot?"

"No. Guess again."

"Is it me?" Yuma guessed suddenly. Astral hesitated.

"Is it possible for me to change my answer?" he asked seriously.

"No…" Yuma frowned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion from the implications of the question.

"Then no, it is not you even though you are correct. Guess again."

"Can you at least tell me if I'm close?" the boy requested.

"You are physically close to it, as were all of your guesses." Yuma raised an eyebrow. How in the world could everything he had guessed be close to what Astral spied? He himself was at least two blocks away from the Obot. But he kept guessing, his answers having no particular pattern between them. The more Yuma guessed the more intrigued Astral became. He at first thought this "I Spy" game was merely a senseless pastime, but he was beginning to see this was actually a game of both observation and creativity. Some like how the shadows of heat waves shimmered on the sidewalk or the odd shapes of clouds were things Astral would have easily overlooked if not pointed out. Perhaps this game was of greater benefit to learning how to truly observe the world from, as Yuma would say, 'different angles.'

"I give up," Yuma admitted defeat, feeling that he had guessed practically every little strange thing in the city he could think of. The spirit smirked.

"Are you saying you can't see what I spy?"

"Yeah, you win." He gathered up his cards. "Hey, let's leave before Akari yells at me to get down," he said as he made his way back to his bedroom window. Astral, however, remained outside. He gave a small smile as a gentle breeze blew past him, ruffling the leaves of a nearby tree.

"Hmm…" Astral breathed before slowly shaking his head, "Then again, Yuma, it shouldn't surprise me that you couldn't see the answer right in front of you."

* * *

><p>So, can anyone guess what Astral spied? It may or may not be incredibly easy, depending on whose perspective you look at it from.<p> 


	17. Chapter 17

Ah no! Sorry to those who were waiting so patiently for an update. The reasons I didn't make any posts were because: 1. I wanted to take a break because of the holidays and family visits, 2. I was working on some chapters for my other fanfic (and a few upcoming ones), 3. I had a bad case of writer's block in the middle of writing this chapter and couldn't think of anything to put for the longest, and finally 4. I had WAY too many last minute assignments given to me. Finals are in one week and our teachers want to make sure we're ready for them. Writing this was more of a pain than usual because of this. But now it is done, so here it is. This is fairly long; I hope it makes up for the unannounced delay.

This chapter was requested by Jackpot 2, though I did alter the suggestion a bit to fit in with the story.

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><p>"It's a good thing we decided to work together on this group project," Kotori smiled as she and her friends sat around in the public library's lounge. Since it was after-school, the library was fairly empty. Their literature teacher had given the class a group writing project; teams of three had to write a four page report about the topic given.<p>

"Yes," Cathy agreed, "But we seem to be missing someone."

"We are?" Tetsuo asked, confused. The five gathered looked around. "Oi, where's Yuma?"

"Isn't he in your group, ura?" Tokunosuke asked.

"Unfortunately," Tetsuo growled, "I remember now; he said he was going to find some books for us to use. And of course that was a while ago."

"But he clearly hasn't come back," sighed Takashi, "To summarize, we're going to fail the assignment if he doesn't return soon." He and Tetsuo stood up. "Let's look for Yuma, Tetsuo."

"We'll help," Kotori offered, and her group stood up as well. The five of them went in search for their missing spiky-hair friend, eventually finding him sprawled out and fast asleep on a small couch in the far back corner of the library. Near the end where the boy's feet was a pile of books, all related to their project.

"At least he remembered to get the books before he fell asleep," sighed Tetsuo, shaking his head.

"Why is he so tired? Is he not getting any sleep at night?" Cathy asked, peeking out from behind the larger friend. As if an answer, Kotori gave a small but sympathetic smile.

"I bet it because of the Numbers hunting." That caused the others to pause.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Tetsuo agreed.

"Now that you mention it, isn't that how we all formed the Numbers Club, ura?" wondered Tokunosuke.

"It was indeed. To summarize, we all wanted to help Yuma uncover the secrets of the Numbers and aid his friend, Astral," Takashi recounted briefly.

"Astral…" the silver-hair girl muttered, "Don't you find it funny we wish to help someone whom we've only ever seen once?"

"Hey, you're right! I mean, I know Yuma can't be completely losing it since there is Kaito and that creepy clown guy he hired to kidnap us back then because of some Numbers card; but you have to admit this all seems pretty strange," Tetsuo uttered. His other four friends nodded. "But heck, Astral saved us. He's not a bad guy; just wish we could, ya' know, help him out some more."

"Maybe we can," Kotori suggested happily, "Maybe we can ask him how we can help."

"How?" asked Takashi, "Only Yuma can hear and see him, and as we all now know…" he left his sentence hanging and indicated the boy sleeping away on the seat. "I think it's just impossible for us to communicate with Astral." There was an unmistakable gleam from Tokunosuke's glasses.

"Well, I think not. Surely if we are able to speak with one another, there must be a way to speak with someone we can't see." His partners smiled. Their class assignment completely forgotten, the Numbers Club went off to find a way to talk to the invisible spirit. Unbeknownst to them, Astral had been observing them the moment they approached his sleeping dueling comrade. He had been trying to wake Yuma ever since the boy decided to "rest his eyes" fifteen minutes ago but to no avail. With nothing better to do, and since these children displayed far more interest in learning about the Numbers cards than Yuma, Astral chose to follow the five, mystified by what attempts they would make to speak with him.

"Right then, ura, I heard somewhere people can talk to spirits by holding a séance," Tokunosuke grinned.

"What's that?" asked Kotori, having never heard that term before.

"You know how in the movies when a group of people sit around a table holding hands, trying to contact a ghost? Well, that's a séance, ura! And the person leading it is in charge of channeling the spirit's thoughts to the other participants, ura."

"Those always scared me a little," Kotori shivered. Rather than at a table, though, the group decided to sit in a circle on the floor. They all linked hands, forming the ring. Invisible to them, Astral hovered a few feet over the center.

"O Astral, invisible, er, spirit I guess," Tokunosuke wasn't entirely sure what Astral was, "Please tell us– how can we help gather the Numbers cards, ura?"

Astral reasoned he needed to talk to the tiny boy, though he couldn't figure how talking to him like this was any different than any other time. Nonetheless, he tried anyways. "Defeat the Numbers holders."

The group of children didn't react. The glasses-wearing boy cleared his voice. "I said, Astral, what is it we can do to find the Numbers cards, ura?"

"Defeat the Numbers holders," repeated the spirit a little louder. Kotori glanced uncertainly at Tokunosuke.

"Is it working? Do you hear anything?"

"…"

"Well?" the club members asked when he didn't respond.

"…No…" admitted Tokunosuke. The others faltered.

"Okay, now what?" Cathy wondered.

"How about Kokkuri [1]?" Takashi offered. His friends looked excited about the suggestion; Astral, though, was confused. Cathy began by taking out a piece of scrap paper, writing and drawing the symbols on it. Tetsuo took out a ten yen coin and placed it in the middle of the sheet. They all placed one finger on it and closed their eyes. "Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, tell us, how can we help Astral?" Astral, having no idea who 'Kokkuri-san' was, figured it was a spirit just like him. He waited for this 'Kokkuri-san,' but when it didn't show he decided to search around for it. After realizing he had no idea what it looked like, Astral returned back to the kids, finding them struggling to push the coin toward the edge of the paper. Struggle was the right word because it would move a few centimeters in one direction, then go back, then move to the side, then back, and this repeated. Checking this off as another failed attempt, the invisible spirit sighed before floating off to see if Yuma had woken up yet.

"Okay, that didn't work," a disappointed Tetsuo grumbled, crumpling up the paper and tossing it in the trash. Astral returned (completely obliviously to children), still interested in talking to them. But now his drive was to learn more about them; they showed so much enthusiasm in just communicating with him he felt obliged to, at the very least, be there for them when they succeed. "Observation #67: Humans can be so one-track minded at times."

"So does anyone else have any ideas?" Takashi asked.

"A better question would be does Astral even want to talk to us, ura?" groaned Tokunosuke, "After all, ura, he never leaves Yuma's side."

"No, I'm sure Astral wouldn't just ignore us; we're Yuma's friends," Kotori reasoned to the group. "Maybe were just doing everything wrong. Maybe we need a simpler method of talking to him." The five of them paused and brainstormed ideas.

"What about the mirror trick?" Cathy said. Unlike the other two suggestions, the rest of the group weren't so sure it would work.

"That's a foreign method, and I have no idea how that'll go, ura," uttered Tokunosuke.

"And besides, where could we do it?" Takashi pointed out. Cathy pointed to the bathrooms. The other four pondered that for a minute. "Okay," Takashi said at last, "But we'll do it. You girls keep watch outside. To summarize, if we get caught, we probably won't be allowed back in the library for a long time." The girls nodded. They made their way to the restrooms; the boys went in while the girls kept watch.

Inside, the boys turned on the hot faucet, letting the water heat up. "You think it'll work?" Tokunosuke asked nervously.

"Of course it will," grinned Tetsuo, "Besides, now that I think about it, this is the simplest method we can try." It took a few minutes but finally steam was produced from the hot running water.

"You think this is enough steam?" Takashi asked. Tetsuo nodded it was. "Right then, let's hurry and ask Astral our question before a librarian catches us."

Outside, the two girls waited patiently. "They've been in there for ten minutes," Kotori said worriedly, "You don't think it didn't work, do you?"

"I don't know," replied the cat-girl, "But to be honest, I was sure this would work." She looked over at Kotori and saw her writing something on a small slip of paper. "What are you doing?"

"Huh?" the green-hair girl was surprised and quickly folded the paper in half, "Oh, nothing, just…testing something."

"Like what?"

"Well, you promise you won't laugh? I remember once hearing that if you write down on a sheet of paper a request to a ghost, they'll answer it." The girl blushed before hurriedly stuffing the paper into her pocket. "B-but it's just nonsense; it'd never work. I don't know what I was thinking! I mean, we haven't even finished your idea yet."

"Oh?" Cathy murmured in response, "I don't know if that it's nonsense, Kotori. But I am a little curious what's taking the boys so long. They only had to ask Astral how to help him and all he'd have to do was write the answer on the bathroom mirror."

"What? I am supposed to be in there?" The girls didn't hear Astral's confused statement. He had been waiting patiently outside with them. Yuma always instructed him to wait outside whenever he needed to use the restroom; Astral had assumed this was the same thing. Before he could do anything, there was the sound of the faucet being turned off before the boys marched gloomily out of the bathroom.

"It didn't work, ura," Tokunosuke sighed. With no more ideas left, the members of the Numbers Club decided to go back and finish their reports.

"Hey, where were you guys?" Yuma had woken up and was waiting for them at the table. Suffice to say he was very puzzled as to why Tetsuo's, Tokunosuke's, and Takashi's sleeves were wet and why Astral hovering above them. "Hm? What happened?"

"We were, uh…trying to talk to Astral," Tetsuo muttered.

"What? You all…were trying…?" Yuma failed to keep himself from bursting out laughing.

"Hey! What's so funny?"

"You guys!" Yuma giggled, "Ha ha! And here I was worried something bad happened to you again." But more nicely, Yuma added, "You know, you could have always asked me to talk to Astral. Then you wouldn't be running around and getting soaked. Speaking of which, how did you–?"

"Don't ask!" his friends all said as one. The two assigned groups finished their projects without anymore delay and soon packed up and headed for the entrance.

"Say Kotori," Yuma pulled his friend aside while the others walked ahead, "Astral wanted me to tell you he saw what you wrote." Kotori gasped. So the spirit had been with them the entire time. "But seriously Kotori, I don't need that guy watching over me. If anything, I should be watching over him; I already have to look after his Ou's Key. Besides, I've gotten better; I bet I could take on Kaito now no sweat." He paused suddenly and looked irritatingly over his shoulder. "What do you mean I'd lose in a heartbeat! Hey, who was it who won most of our Numbers cards? What do you mean I only helped you out? If you know what's good for you Astral–!"

Kotori laughed at the one-sided argument as the three of them headed home.

* * *

><p>[1] Kokkuri, often called Kokkuri-san or Angel-sama, is a Japanese game where children speak to spirits. If you've ever heard of Ouija then you basically know how to play this game.<p>

Well, I hope you enjoyed it. It wasn't as funny as I had hoped but I really wanted to write about the Numbers Club before I stopped. And before anyone asks or complains, no– I'm still not accepting requests. I already said earlier requests in pending would be written, and Jackpot 2 had requested this a while ago (again, sorry it took so long).


	18. Chapter 18

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you're all having a great Christmas Eve. A special update I've been planning for a while now. Hope you enjoy!

I'd like to thank firekovu for the editing and providing me with some suggestions, as well as Hana13.

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><p>"Kattubingu, ore!" Yuma cheered happily as he leaped out of his hammock. "Wake up Astral! Today's a busy day for us." The Ou's Key glowed briefly and the spirit within shortly appeared before him.<p>

"I needn't remind that I don't sleep," Astral explained to the boy once again, "And I would wish to know why today will be so busy. It's Saturday and you said you had no classes."

"Because tomorrow's Christmas!" Yuma said, grinning like an idiot, like that explained everything.

"That may be, but today isn't…what?"

"Christmas. Today is Christmas Eve. And it's got to be the busiest day of the year." Yuma hurried and got himself dressed.

"Why?" asked Astral, looking away to give his friend some privacy.

"Christmas shopping. Everyone's out and about buying gifts for friends and family. And before you even ask, Christmas is a holiday we celebrate."

"What exactly do you celebrate and how?"

"To be honest, it's different for different people, but many of us celebrate the joys and the blessings of our loved ones. And we express that through gift giving. Every year, in the month of December–"

"You mean the time when all the leaves are brown and are swept away by the wind?" Astral interrupted, turning back around to see Yuma already done.

"Yes, although looking at a calendar is easier if you want to know what month you're in," Yuma smirked, "Anyways, every year in December, the whole area just becomes more festive. And at the end of the month, on Christmas, you spend the entire day opening presents and hanging out with family."

"Hm, so you're saying that before the day of Christmas you hand these presents to people you know? Then on Christmas you open the gifts whilst enjoying the company of your family?" the spirit wanted to clarify. Yuma nodded. "So aside from shopping, why to anticipate this day to be so hectic?"

"Erm, well you see, we still need to set up the tree."

"Set up…the _tree?_" Astral raised an eyebrow, "What tree?"

"The Christmas tree, hello? It's up in the attic. I gotta go get it."

"Why'd you keep it up there? Even you have to admit it'll most certainly be dead by now; there's no sunlight or water up there. Why didn't you grow it in your living room instead?"

"Uh, the tree is fake. And besides, there's more to do than just setting it up. We have to decorate it and the house, and hang the stockings–" the human began listing.

"–And bake the cookies, and start the fire," a voice said from the doorway. Both boys looked down to see Akari halfway up into Yuma's room. "Glad to see how much work we've got left to do. So, you excited for tomorrow?"

"Yeah I am," her brother said, his brows furrowing a bit, "But I already promised to decorate everything. Remember, you said you wanted a Christmas without having to worry about work."

"Uhhh!" Akari sighed as she walked back downstairs, "Yuma, I was referring to my work."

"I know," Yuma said, following after her, "But work's work, so you shouldn't worry about it."

"But Yuma, didn't you just say you needed to go shopping?"

"I already got most of it finished."

Akari sighed loudly again just as she reached the bottom step. "No, you finish shopping. I already gave my friends' presents to them. You should get out; it's a fine day out."

"No way." Boy, Yuma was stubborn.

"Then do you want to work for me?"

"Work for you!" exclaimed Yuma. "How did–when did this turn into that?"

"What are you two arguing about now?" Haru came walking out from the living room. Akari pretended to pout.

"Obaa-chaaaan. Yuma won't do a little errand for me."

"Huh?" the youngest member of the family was completely lost.

"I'm sure it won't take you long, Yuma. Why don't you help your sister out a bit." Akari smiled, Yuma frowned, and a few minutes later he was standing outside the front door carrying a few bags.

"Thanks Yuma," Akari said from the doorway, "Oh, and while you're out, finish your shopping. I put some money in your pocket while you weren't looking."

"What! But then you tricked–" But Akari closed the door before he could finish. "…Me," the boy grumbled.

"What are you going to do now?" Astral hovered beside him. To his surprise, Yuma shrugged.

"Let's go and deliver these, finish shopping to make Akari happy, then hurry back so we can decorate." He spun on his heel and ran to the post office.

The journey there wasn't a bore in the slightest. All of Heartland was alight: Bright, colorful lights lined the buildings. Wreaths hung from the doors. All the townspeople were heavily bundled, not at all letting the cold hamper their blissful spirits. All in all, the entire town seemed to be much more cheerful than normal.

"I wonder why it isn't like this all year long." Astral couldn't help but be amazed by the lights and festivities. There was a strange, indescribable beauty and peacefulness to everything.

"You and me both," laughed Yuma, glad to hear Astral's amazement.

Haru was right– the errand didn't take long to do at all. In fact, Yuma was a little shocked to see the post office still open. "Hey wait, this isn't one of Onee-chan's," Yuma muttered, noticing one of the bags didn't have an address on it. He opened it to find small wrapped boxes inside.

"What are those boxes?" Astral wondered.

"These are my friends' presents," Yuma said in awe, "Sis must of found my hiding spot. Oh wow, here's Kotori's gift, and Tetsuo's, and Takashi's…"

"But why are they wrapped?"

"They're supposed to be, so everyone can open them on Christmas."

"And what kind of presents are they?" Astral was really interested in this peculiar holiday.

"Anything the person wants."

"Anything? At all?"

"Yeah, anything. Most times, we can give it to the person even when we normally couldn't." He glanced back at the bag of gifts. "Heh! I guess I got Onee-chan to thank for giving me the chance to hand these to my friends early." As Yuma was wondering who first to give his gifts to he heard someone shouting to him "Oi! Yuma!" Said boy turned around to see Tetsuo and his sister walking towards him.

"Funny finding you here so early. You out shopping too?" Yuma's friend asked.

"Sorta. I'm mostly done."

"Glad to hear," Tetsuko answered, "Lil' bro and I've got some more things to get. I hope you have a Merry Christmas."

"I will, thanks!" Yuma said, "Oh, Tetsuo, here, I got this for you." He handed the red present to his friend.

"Wow! Thanks Yuma," thanked Tetsuo, "Sorry I don't have your gift on me right now. I'll definitely give it to ya' later. I'll be seeing ya'." He and Tetsuko went to finish their shopping.

"Well, I better find the others," sighed Yuma. He took one step forward and immediately slipped on the black ice. He slid very ungracefully a few meters before tumbling backwards and landing on his rear.

"Just like skateboarding," mused Astral, "Though not nearly as pleasant to look at."

"Ow! Ice skating– not something you should do without the skates. Ugh, could someone please help me up." But everyone passed by, too engrossed with their shopping and chattering to notice him unable to get off the ice.

"Well, it appears no one wishes to aid you," remarked Astral. But he was proven wrong as someone did hear Yuma's cry.

"Need a hand?" Yuma smiled gratefully as Kotori reached out and pulled him up. "You okay there?"

"Man, thanks Kotori. Otherwise, Astral would've had to help me, and we both know that wasn't happening." The girl giggled.

"You never know. Christmas is after all that magical time of year. What are you doing, by the way?"

"Oh? Gift giving. Speaking of which– here. Merry Christmas." Yuma pulled out a beautifully wrapped box, decorated with evergreen wrapping paper and a bow. His friend took it.

"Thank you! Oh, hey Yuma, look over there."

"Huh? Why?" Yuma looked over. Dangling over the door of the nearest shop was a small plant; white berries growing in between the small, round leaves. Yuma was unfamiliar with the plant's name. "What is it? I've never heard–"

Before he could react, Kotori leaned in and blew a kiss at him. Yuma blushed profusely, finally figuring out what was so special about the plant. "M-m-mistlet-toe?" He was honestly too flustered to decide whether to return the gesture with a real kiss or play it off. Seeing his complete inability to decide, Kotori wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him.

"It's okay, there's always next year." The boy then felt something fall into his hand. He looked down to see a little, wrapped box in it. "Merry Christmas, Yuma. And you too Astral." And she cantered off to finish her holiday shopping.

"Yuma, what's so special about the mistletoe?"

"It's, uh, well when a boy and a girl see mistletoe together, erm…"

"Yes?"

"Forget it. Um, I'll tell you about it later, Astral." Collecting himself, Yuma quickly made sure all his things were still in his bag before heading off as well. He spent the rest of the morning darting around town, buying and then handing the rest of his gifts to their intended recipients. By mid-afternoon he was finally finished.

"Okay, that's everyone's presents," huffed Yuma, just coming back from delivering Takashi's gift.

"Are you sure?" Astral asked him. Yuma thought about it.

"Let's see…Tetsuo, Kotori, Tokunosuke, Cathy, Takashi …ah! I forgot about Shark!"

"Forgot what about me?"

Yuma looked to his left to see Shark walking out of a small shop. "I-uh-forgot to give you a gift."

"Hmph. Don't bother," Shark waved it off.

"But Shark, it's–"

"I said don't bother," Ryoga said a little more harshly, "I'm not exactly…a Christmasy kind of guy."

"You don't say," Yuma muttered under his breath, but he really did feel bad for not getting something for the Water duelist. He just then noticed the package in the boy's hand. "Say, what's that then?"

"Just…something…for someone I know," Shark growled, though he looked away some when he said it. Judging by the shape of it, Yuma could guess it was one of those scent candles. Was the gift for his mother?

"Hey. I got something for you."

"Huh?" Shark's voice snapped Yuma out of his wondering. The purple-hair boy tossed a wrapped box to Yuma.

"See ya'." And Shark strolled off before Yuma could even utter out a puzzled "Merry Christmas."

"Are you going to open it now?"

"Christmas, Astral! We open gifts on _Christmas!_"

"Why do you wait?"

"Beats me! Now let's hurry; at this rate, we won't finish decorating the house until New Year's Eve." The duo rushed home. By the time they reached the front door, Yuma's cheeks were red from the cold. "Onee-chan? Oba-chan? I'm home!" Yuma shouted, taking his jacket off. He paused when he heard no response. "Guys? I said I was–" He looked inside the living room, stunned by the sight. The tree was all set, decorated and everything; there were even a few presents underneath. Three stockings hung on the walls. The walls were lined with wreaths and holographic snowflakes. The radio was playing, a catchy jingle playing.

"Yuma, glad you're back," Haru said while putting on the last ornament on the tree.

"Whoa, you're home early," Akari said from the kitchen. Yuma could see her wearing an apron and stirring cookie dough in a bowl. "I didn't think you'd be back so soon."

"Guys, what's going on? I thought I was going to decorate this year?"

"Oh, like we'd leave that burden all to you. A bratty little brother deserves a little break from time to time."

"'Bratty'?" Yuma remarked angrily. Chuckling, Akari walked over to him.

"Nah, not bratty. A little crazy at times, though. You've been a great help lately. We wanted to give you something less to worry about this time. Want to help with the baking?"

"You bet!" Brother and sister ran into the kitchen, the former truly excited by the sight and smells. It wasn't too long before a mess erupted from the two play fighting, and soon after Haru joined them to finish baking and then icing the cookies. After they were done, the three enjoyed them with steaming mugs of hot chocolate. Astral observed it all, and not for the first time he had a small but sudden desire to partake in the silly closeness he was watching from above.

It was evening by the time everything was finished. Haru was resting in an armchair while Akari and Yuma were seated on the couch. Both women were dozing, worn out from all the decorating and baking. Yuma was still up, watching television, the volume turned low.

"You know Yuma, you never answered whether you gave a gift to everyone," Astral stated quite calmly. Yuma tore his gaze away from the screen.

"What do you mean? Of course I did." Astral looked at him before the answer finally hit Yuma like a truck. "Wait, you?"

"You never bothered to ask."

"Sorry. I assumed you didn't want anything. So Astral, what do you want? I could give it to you tomorrow. Probably."

"I'd like my memories," Astral answered. Yuma looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or frown.

"Uh, I can't give you that."

"Why not? I thought you said you could give anything on Christmas, even if you normally couldn't."

"Yeah, but that's something even I can't do," the boy explained, "It's just…not in my power." Astral looked away, disappoint clearly etched on his face. "But don't worry Astral. You can make new memories here. And I promise we'll get them back."

"If you insist," was the spirit's reply. There was an awkward silence before he spoke again, "May I ask of something else?"

"Sure. What?"

"Will you tell me, since it's a holiday, what exactly a _merry_ Christmas is?" This time, Yuma did laugh heartedly.

* * *

><p>Hope you enjoyed this! I really wanted to add more, but a part of me felt I was dragging the story a bit (can you guys please tell me if I was?). Reviews for this chapter would be great. I hope you all have a great Christmas.<p> 


	19. Chapter 19

I hope everyone had fun during the first week of the new year! I know I did (hence the delay). I hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

><p>The schoolchildren were chattering amiable amongst themselves. There was a rumor that something special would happen in homeroom today.<p>

"Your classmates appear very anxious this morning, Yuma," Astral observed as his friend took his seat at his desk.

"Yeah. I wonder when sensei will come so we can see," replied the boy. The morning bell rang, and the remaining students hurried to take their seats.

"Class, we have a new student today," were the first word their teacher when she walked into the classroom. Following in behind her was an unfamiliar but handsome black-hair boy. The girls instantly became interested.

"Everyone, please welcome Emilio Soto. He's from Mexico, so his Japanese isn't very good, but I'm sure you can all help him improve it."

"Yes, sensei," the class responded in unison. Emilio was instructed to take an empty seat two chairs over from Yuma. Astral spent much of the morning watching the new student work in silence.

When lunch came around, the class's female population rushed to meet the foreign boy. A crowd formed in less than ten seconds.

"Ooo, say something in Japanese," one girl, Umeko, squealed excitedly.

"Yeah, say something!"

Emilio, embarrassed by all the attention, stuttered out "I-I know not what to say?" Some of the girls started hopping in place; the rest giggled loudly again.

"Say your name."

"Oh yeah, in Japanese."

"Say it! Say it!"

Emilio finally caught on what they wanted from him. "My name Soto Emilio, er, Emilio Soto[1]. Pleased to meet all you." More high-pitched squealing. From his seat, Yuma couldn't help but chuckle as he took out his bento box.

"What's up with the girls?" a boy named Kaoru muttered.

"Yeah, it's like they've never seen a guy before," agreed Noriyuki in mild disgust. The two got up to eat their lunch in peace. Yuma considered doing the same when Astral spoke up.

"What's wrong with Emilio? I am aware he is not from here, but his speech is…to put politely, it's reminiscent to a child learning the language. I've overheard younger humans speak with more clarity, and correctly, than him."

"It's like sensei said, his Japanese isn't good."

"Why not? Surely he's had enough exposure to it by now."

"Probably not where he's from. Last time I checked, Japanese wasn't commonly spoken in Mexico."

"It's not?" asked the spirit in surprise. Yuma had to keep himself from rolling his eyes like it was obvious.

"Uh, no. Many countries don't speak the same language. Like how people in Japan speak Japanese, and people in China speak Chinese."

"So do people in Mexico speak Mexiconese?"

"Wha-no! They speak Spanish."

"So how many languages do you have on your world?" Astral questioned him "I'm aware of Japanese, English, and now Chinese and Spanish." Yuma shrugged.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I know there's well over a thousand."

"A thousand!" exclaimed the blue being, "What reason does any world need more than a thousand languages?" At that moment, Emilio managed to scoot himself away from the flirting girls and hide behind Yuma. All the boys in the room tried to hide either their snickering or frowns as the girls chased the newcomer around.

"To answer your question," Yuma answered his friend when the distractions left, "Humans don't even know. All we do know is that all languages evolved over time, and depending where you lived determined how it evolved."

"But then conversing with those not from your homeland…isn't that troublesome?"

"Sometimes. Like right now," smirked Yuma, indicating Emilio.

The latter, finally cornered, turned to the girls and said, "Um, you girls nice, but I know not what you want."

"He's so cute!" Ayane sighed.

"And polite," added Rika.

"We just want to hear you say something in Spanish now," Kiomi stepped forward. She was speaking slowly so Emilio could understand. "You know, Spanish. Español. You speak it. Please?"

Glad to know they just wanted to hear him speak his native tongue, Emilio entertained the girls with, "Dios mío, las muchachas en Japón son tan implacables[2]." Many of the girls swooned.

"It's gotta' be the accent," muttered Yuma under his breath. Astral, staring at the Spanish-speaker, still had a puzzled look on his face.

"Was that just Spanish he spoke? It sounds strange, not at all like Japanese. How does anyone like it?"

"Many women think it sounds attractive. And, personally, I think it sounds pretty cool."

"And as I just said, I think it sounds strange."

"Hey!" Noriyuki blurted to the girls, "It's lunchtime. When are you girls actually going to, oh, I don't know, eat lunch? There's only about ten minutes left, ya' know."

Many of the boys thanked Noriyuki when the girls appeared startled, glanced at the clock, then hurried to their desks to eat their food. However, a small cluster of girls remained with Emilio. With a majority of the crowd dispersed, Tetsuo walked over to finish his lunch with his friend.

"About time those girls left the kid alone," Tetsuo grinned as he sat next to Yuma, "Kind of annoying." Yuma only grinned in agreement. He just finished his food when Kotori and Cathy approached them.

"Ahhh," Kotori sighed, a dreamy look on her face as she pulled up a seat in front of his desk, "Isn't he just dreamy? So adorable and everything, especially when he talks."

"Nyah, I know." Cathy smiled as well, sitting next to her. Their two male friends sweatdropped.

"I think you two are just infatuated," Tetsuo groaned.

"And I really don't see what's so appealing about the boy," Astral said.

"You, me, and the rest of the male population, Astral," agreed Yuma. Out of courtesy, the two girls decided to drop their talk about Emilio and just hang out with the boys. Since he was done, Yuma contented himself to just look around the classroom. He spotted Emilio. The boy was now alone, though Yuma suspected that wasn't exactly what the boy wanted.

Emilio opened his bento, but the food inside wasn't the expected rice or fish. Instead, it was something most of the students were unfamiliar with. "Yuma, why does he eat such different foods than you?" Astral pointed.

"Okay, are you just not getting the concept he's not from around here? The Japanese and the Mexicans live on opposite sides of the globe. Therefore, you shouldn't be surprised that we don't share the same foods and cultures."

"So then how do various humans get along with one another?"

"Just because we don't share the customs doesn't mean we can't learn the language. Why do you think we have English classes?"

"I always assumed you were studying an archaic rendition of your dialogue."

A few girls tried waving Emilio over so he could sit with them, but the new student would rather not hang with a group of girls all day. Frowning a bit, he took his seat at his desk. "You don't suppose he's lonely, do you?" Kotori asked in all seriousness. Her other two friends glanced over.

"Maybe. A new student at a new school, speaking a language he's unfamiliar with," mumbled Tetsuo, "That's enough to make anyone feel homesick."

"And everyone else went to have lunch with their own friends," Cathy observed, looking around.

"That's it!" grinned Yuma, "I bet Emilio's just upset 'cause he doesn't have any friends yet."

"Then we should invite him over!" Kotori smiled, "We can be his first friends in Japan."

"How?" asked Cathy, "He doesn't seem to want to talk with anyone. Probably because he won't understand them."

But the spiky-hair boy only grinned. He turned to Emilio, paused for a moment like he was remembering something, then called out, "Oi, Emilio, quieres almorzar con nosotros [3]?" All of Yuma's friends stared at him, including Astral. Emilio looked up at him with equal surprise.

"Yuma," Kotori was the first to speak, "How do you know Spanish?" Said boy merely shrugged.

"Before traveling somewhere new, mom and dad would always try to learn a bit of the language of the place they would be visiting. Akari and I helped them practice, and eventually we picked up words and phrases in various languages. But it's not like I can hold an entire conversation."

Emilio, having gotten up, stood over the group. "P-puedo sintarme con ustedes? Er, I mean, can I sit with you?"

"Sure. Claro que sí." Yuma invited him, "Nos gustaría ser tus amigos[4]." Emilio smiled at his offering of friendship. By the end of the day, the five of them were happily exchanging the latest Duel Monsters trends of their respective homelands.

* * *

><p>[1] In Japan, people normally introduce themselves last name first. I wasn't sure how to portray Emilio's mix up to this in English, so I wrote it the way it is<p>

[2], [3], [4] _trans_: "My goodness, the girls in Japan are so relentless."; "Hey, Emilio, want to have lunch with us?"; "We would like to be your friends." –My Spanish isn't the best, so if anyone finds a mistake please tell me; I'll be more than happy to fix it.

I would like to thank TheRoseShadow21 for some of the name suggestions and The Sacred Rigel for the correct Spanish usage. Thanks!


	20. Chapter 20

"Yuma, are you sure this is wise?"

"Come on, Astral, aren't you even a teeny bit curious to watch the movie?" The spirit shook his head.

"No, I'm not. Besides, your sister said not to watch it. She stated that you'll have nightmares, which she does not wish to handle. Furthermore, you're not of age."

"Nightmares? Yeah right! This was made over twenty years ago with cheap special effects. By today's standards it'd be rated PG-12 at most. The worst reaction I'd have would be a severe case of boredom. Admit it- you don't want to watch a horror movie because you'll get scared."

"I highly doubt it. However, I am not your caretaker. If you wish to partake in senseless rule-breaking, I won't prevent you from doing so."

"…Yeah, thanks Astral!" That was admittedly _not_ the reaction the spirit was hoping for. Yuma ran to the movie player and inserted the disk into the machine. "I went through a lot of trouble snagging this movie from sis's room. Now I can finally watch it since she and Obaa-chan are attending her business's award ceremony."

"Then shouldn't you be more interested in finding out if she received an award?" reasoned Astral. Yuma thought about it but shook his head.

"Nah, she may be a pain when she has me working for her, but sis is great at her job. I'm sure she'll get an award or something. Besides, we'll find out for sure once she gets back home."

Yuma turned off the lights, leaving the living room completely dark save for the television screen. "Oh cool, this is an interactive first-person movie! Didn't know they had those back then," Yuma beamed when the main menu popped up.

"An 'interactive, first-person movie'?"

"It means the movie is sorta of played out like an first-person arcade game. We use the remote to make all the decisions." Astral still looked slightly confused but didn't say anything as Yuma pressed 'Start'.

The screen blackened and then faded into what looked like the interior of a car. Laughter could be heard in the background and the view suddenly panned to the left. The shot focused on a young adult, giddy with joy and drinking something from a can while flashing Yuma and Astral a stupid grin.

For some reason, Astral had a sense of connection to the unknown character, even though this was less than the first minute of the movie. He looked down at Yuma and noticed the boy was also entranced at the screen.

_Interesting,_ thought Astral, intrigued by how changing the perspective of presentation slightly alters the viewer's reactions.

To the man's left was a slightly younger lady, her head resting against the window. Though her black hair covered her face, it was obvious the girl was asleep.

"So, mates, we headin' down to the ol' castle, eh?" the giddy man asked. A female voice giggled and the camera shifted back right. Another man and a woman, both around the first man's age, were up front. The female, in the passenger's seat, turned around.

"'Course we are, Tomio," she giggled again. Her face was flushed and her speech slightly slurred.

"Great, glad to hear it, Rachelle. Oi, Dai, make sure you ge' us there safely. Don't want your driver's license revoked 'fore we get there."

"Shut it, Tomio," the man named Dai said from the front. "But still, guys, haven't you heard the rumors of that place? The spirit of Nosferatu is said to reside there, ya' know?"

"Well, duh, why d'ya think we're goin'? Goin' to be the first people to catch him on video," teased Tomio, holding up a camcorder. He turned to the screen. "Hey, don't ya' agree with me?" Two bubbles slowly faded onto the screen. The left read _"Yes"_ and the right _"No"_.

"What's going on?" Astral asked.

"Now it's our turn to decide what happens next," Yuma beamed, "The movie won't continue until we pick one."

"Oh. But why are we in this particular situation in the first place? If the other characters knew the place was dangerous, why go? Shouldn't we have been given the option to not get in the car at the beginning?"

"This is a horror movie, Astral- things always start out like this. Stop making things more difficult than they need to be. Look, I'm gonna' say 'yes' so we can get on with the movie."

The video resumed with the view shaking up and down. "Great! See, newbie here thinks so too!"

"Who's 'Newbie'?" wondered Astral. Yuma cast him a sideways glare of annoyance.

Dai sighed in defeat. "Alright, but don't come crying to me when we're all suddenly attacked by ghosts or something." The car ride went by rather uneventfully, or as Yuma phrased it " it dragged on too long."

The next scene started and the camera turned to look out the window. Outside was an immense field of rye. In the middle of the field looked like an old Western-style mansion. "Oi, wake up, Miyuki," Tomio called to the sleeping girl. Miyuki stirred, rubbed her and looked out the window.

"We're here?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Looks like it, lass," Tomio smirked. Miyuki giggled at the calling. The four of them got out of the car, and the motion of the camera made it appear the viewer did as well.

"I've never seen grass like that," Astral observed the scenery, "Where exactly does this story take place?"

"In Transylvania. Or New Mexico. But who cares." The spirit's friend answered lazily. Thunder clapped, and Yuma's interest was instantly piqued.

"Should we go in? Looks like a storm's coming," stated Rachelle. Another pair of _"Yes/No"_ bubbles came on the screen.

"Yes," said Yuma.

"Hold on," Astral interrupted, "Thinking things logically, the correct answer is 'No'."

"What the heck are you bringing logic into this for!" cried Yuma.

"We are informed this building is dangerous, and judging by its decrepit state that is a fair assessment. Furthermore, a storm is most likely evident given the sound of thunder just a while ago. I say Newbie and the other characters should seek shelter."

"Uh, it's a mansion. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of shelter. And for the last time- this is a horror movie. There _has_ to be danger or it will be boring." He pressed "yes" despite Astral's protest.

On screen, the front doors banged opened by themselves. "M-must be the wind," stammered Miyuki as Tomio went over and patted her on the back.

"Don't go tellin' me ya' scared now!" he laughed. He walked up the steps and the rest of the party followed. Right after the camera passed through the doorway, it turned around 180 degrees. The doors instantly slammed shut. Dai ran toward them, fiddling with the doorknob.

"We're – we're locked in!" he cried in fright. The camera began shaking back a forth, as if the player was trembling.

"Great, now wha'll we do?" sighed Tomio before answering his own question with, "I guess we can start explorin'. I'll go upstairs with Miyuki. Dai and Rachelle- ya' guys check the basement. So newbie, wha'll you do?" Three bubbles came up: _"Follow Tomio"_, _"Follow Dai"_, and _"Explore the first floor"_.

"How about you decide this time," Yuma offered his friend.

"Let's leave through one of the windows," Astral suggested.

"That's not a choice, Astral," the boy groaned.

"Why isn't it? It's certainly better than the three we are given, and it's the most sensible. If we can simply state that to the other players-"

"Astral- pick one of the three on the screen. Stop making this too difficult!" Astral scowled.

"Fine then, explore the first floor. Newbie should be able to keep watch over the exits."

"Newbie's not his…oh, never mind," Yuma sighed as he selected that and the video continued. "Sounds fine, mate," Tomio smirked, "Come on, Miyuki, let's hea' upstairs." The group split up and when they were gone, arrows appeared. Yuma and Astral took turns deciding which areas to explore. Finally, they stumbled upon what looked like a highly decorated coffin.

"Wonder what's inside," Yuma grinned, "Probably a mummy."

"Or the spirit of Nosferatu Dai mentioned," Astral speculated.

"…Or treasure," Yuma laughed.

"I highly doubt it's that."

"Yeah, you're probably right, but let's check it out just in case." Yuma selected _"Interact"_ and the coffin lid slid open. Newbie moved around to peer inside and saw…

Nothing. "What the…?" Yuma looked momentarily confused when without warning the screen jerked violently and twisted around. The image of a hideous but well dressed man with the face resembling a bat suddenly appeared on the screen. "Holy-!" Yuma exclaimed, repeatedly jammed the down button. The screen zoomed out a bit, indicating Newbie's retreat. But the monster came running at the screen. Arrows appeared on the screen and began to flash, and in response, Yuma pressed down on the corresponding arrow keys, somehow able to lead the character toward the basement door. Astral surmised this was a game of reflex, and successfully completing it would allow Newbie to escape.

The door flung open, but it was dark, covering the screen in blackness.

Sounds of thumping and something falling played through the speakers, then a click was heard and the lights came on. Dai and Rachelle were looking down at the screen. "You okay?" Dai asked, "You look like you've seen a ghost." Newbie nodded twice. "What? You did see a ghost?...Stop pulling our legs- there're no such things."

"You've clearly never met Astral," Yuma said with a laugh; the spirit gave a little smirk.

The lights in the basement went out again.

"Not again!" growled Dai. The sounds of shuffling and the stairs creaking were heard followed by a doorknob being jiggled. "Locked? But it was just open. Great! Now what do we do?" The options _"Explore"_ and _"Escape"_ appeared.

"We could try exploring the rest of the room and see if there's a key," Astral said, but Yuma shook his head.

"Nah uh, we gotta get out of here and pronto." Astral stared at him in disbelief.

"Now you want to escape the mansion? Why didn't you do so sooner?"

"It wasn't the right time. Now that we woke up that Nosferatu spirit guy he's going to come after us one by one. We need to survive and get out of here."

"Then what was the point in waking him in the first place?"

"Because it wouldn't be much of a horror movie without the horror." The spirit was truly at a loss for words.

"Just…pick 'Escape'," he said with a defeated sigh. Yuma did so.

A scream suddenly pierced the air. The lights shot back on, and the view as well as Dai's attention was focused on Rachelle and a grey, decaying hand pulling her into the shadows. "Rachelle!" But he was a hair's breadth too short of reaching her before she vanished. Dai slammed his fist against the wall. A small click rang, indicating the door was now open. "I'm going after her!" he growled, "You can come along if you want, or you can try and run. Which will you choose?"

"Help him," both Yuma and Astral blurted before staring at each other and sharing grins. Though Astral thought these young adults to be foolish at best, they were still friends to Newbie, so it'd be unthinkable to abandon one of their own.

"Then come on!" The player followed Dai back up the stairs to the first floor. "I'm going to look for Rachelle; you find and warn Tomio and Miyuki we're now dealing with the supernatural." Without receiving any input from Yuma, Newbie automatically headed toward the second floor. At the top were four doors.

"Which one do you think they're in?" the boy wondered.

"A normal person would just call out to them," the spirit said with mild irritation, "But that's not an available option, is it?"

"Now you're getting the hang of it!" cheered his friend. He noticed one of the doors was slightly ajar. "This one," he said, selecting the furthest door on the right. The camera angled, making its way through, and the two boys were greeted with the sight of Tomio almost done taking his shirt off in front of Miyuki, the latter tightly embracing him. Yuma blushed while Astral looked puzzled.

"I don't understand. Is it hot in the room? That'd be explainable as to why Tomio's taking off his shirt…but then why would Miyuki-?"

"Don't ask!" Yuma blurted out before mumbling something to himself.

Tomio and Miyuki seemed to just notice the player. "Geez!"shouted Tomio as he hastily buttoned up his shirt, "Ever hear' of knockin'? And wha' the heck's the matter with ya'? You look like an ax murder's ou' ta' get ya'." The camera nodded rapidly.

"Look, mate, it's bad enough ya' decided to come waltzin' in without a warnin', but if you're goin' to play games with me then-"

"Tomio, look!" screamed Miyuki, pointed past the viewer's line of sight. Newbie turned, and Nosferatu leaped out of the shadows toward the player. The image suddenly shook and fell, like camera had fallen to the ground. The view swiveled upward and the player could make out Tomio struggling to escape Nosferatu's grasp, who was pulling the teen back into the shadows with him.

"Get Miyuki and run!" Tomio shouted, "Don' worry 'bout me! GO!" The options _"Save Tomio"_ and _"Save Miyuki"_ popped up.

"Let's help Tomio!" Yuma said, but Astral stopped him.

"No- Miyuki. We'll only be risking ourselves as well as hers." Yuma considered it.

"Fine, okay," he agreed, "And we might even be able to see if we can find the others while we're at it."

"Clearly we can bring logic into this," stated Astral. Newbie grabbed Miyuki's wrist, half dragging her out of the room and down the stairs. Dai was waiting for them at the bottom.

"Where's Tomio?" he asked, but a sniffle from the girl told him everything. Nosferatu's screeching suddenly resonated throughout the mansion, causing everyone to flinch.

"He's going to get us!" the black-hair girl began to panic. "He'll get us, just like he got Tomio!"

"Calm down," Dai ordered, "He won't get us. I just checked around; there's an open window in the kitchen. But be careful; they're knives everywhere. I'm sure the slightest noise will get us all…" He let it hang.

"Knives? He's…he's hungry? He's going to _eat_ us?" whimpered Miyuki before falling to the ground moaning. Dai had to force her back up again.

The player followed Dai and Miyuki to the kitchen. Rather than a handful of knives lying about the counter, it was a sea of sharp blades piled on the counters and floors. Yuma could just make out a tiny area right below the only small window in the room for climbing onto. "Miyuki, you get up first," Dai whispered. He cupped his hands to up the girl up. Miyuki quietly but forcefully pushed up against the window. Ever so slowly did it rise up. Meanwhile, Dai kept looking around to make sure they weren't spotted. When the window was high enough, Miyuki crawled through under it.

"It's almost daybreak," she called quietly to them from outside.

"Get to the car and hide," Dai whispered back tersely. A scuffling of grass said she didn't need to be told twice to run.

"Okay, I'll go next." The large teen knocked over a knife as he struggled through the narrow passageway, but nothing happened, and he too finally made it through. Now the player was left all alone in the kitchen.

"Huh? Why is the game giving us an option?" Yuma wondered as the bubbles _"Escape"_ and _"Explore"_ popped up.

"Probably so we can examine the cabinet," remarked the spirit.

"What cabinet?"

"When you first entered the room, there was a large cabinet on the other side of the room. Most of it was hidden from view by the piles of silverware."

"Really?"

"As Newbie walked past it from a different angle, I noticed that there was a tiny pathway leading to it."

"So?" Yuma wasn't sure why this cabinet was so important to examine.

"Why do you suppose there is only a path to the cabinet and not anywhere else in the kitchen, including the refrigerator and table?" Now Yuma understood. He maneuvered Newbie through the maze of cutlery until he got to the cabinet. Opening the doors, Yuma and Astral could see Tomio and Rachelle bound, gagged, and stuffed inside.

"That doesn't look the slightest bit comfortable."

"Really, Astral? That was the first thing that came to your mind?"

Yuma had Newbie untie the two captives. "Thanks 'bunch, mate!" Tomio breathed once his arms were free and he could talk again. He looked up, his face paling. "Behind you!"

Nosferatu was hovering and grinning manically at the player. Four arrows popped up on the screen and without needing to be told what to do, Yuma pressed the corresponding button on the remote whenever the arrow flashed.

As Yuma continued to press buttons, Astral noticed Tomio and Rachelle crawling through the window. Tomio, the last one, made a motion for the player to follow.

"It's time for Newbie to go," Astral instructed his friend.

"Got it!" grinned Yuma. He waited for the down arrow to flash.

There! Newbie ducked below Nosferatu's swipe and dashed toward the window. "Huh? I'm not in control anymore. This must be a cutscene," Yuma stated. The two watched as the screen showed the window getting larger and larger; Newbie was almost out!

But the camera jerked, and turning, spotted Nosferatu grabbing on to Newbie's leg, trying to drag him back down.

"Ge' off 'im!" Tomio and Dai rushed toward the player, grabbing his arms. There was a brief tug-of-war sequence before Nosferatu suddenly recoiled, releasing Newbie. Smoke spilled from the spirit's body before he inexplicably dissolved into a cloud of smoke.

"What just…?"

"I have no idea," Yuma was just as baffled as Astral. Then he remembered something. "Oh yeah! Vampire's can't take sunlight! I guess that means we won the game, er, movie!"

Without warning, the lights to the living room turned on. "Yuma!" Akari yelled from the doorway, holding a small plaque under her arm. "I thought I said you weren't supposed to be watching my movies!"

"Huh, you're back already? But look, Nee-chan- I beat the game and survived, see?" Akari looked skeptically at her younger brother.

"You beat the game? By yourself and on the first try? And you weren't scared?"

"Scared? This was awesome! I didn't find anything frightening at all."

The older sibling smirked as she put down her award. "Oh, I have to see this. But why don't we amp up the difficulty a bit? You know, as punishment for sneaking into my room."

Yuma turned to his spirit friend, grinning. "Wanna do it again once more?"

"I feel it will be impossible for me to understand you creature's addiction to horror," Astral sighed. But he gladly teamed up again as the three of them now traveled once more through Nosferatu castle.

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><p>Phew! This one is a long one! I really wanted to make it up to all those who've waited so patiently for the next update. I sincerely apologize, but I had so much going on. A lot of things kept me from updating: school (as you all know by now), video and art projects, writer's block, procrastination, and even a declining interest in Zexal (I'm still watching it from time to time but I'm afraid the series, for me, isn't progressing at the pace I feel it could be going). This may be my last Zexal story unless I decide to do a crossover.<p>

The final chapter will be up, hopefully soon. Unlike the other chapters, Yuma will not be the main focus; instead, Astral will be hanging out with a surprise guest. In my opinion, I feel this epilogue will be a nice conclusion to this series of one-shots.

On a side note, I will be updating my profile page more frequently so readers can get an idea of when new stories will be released and which ones are on hiatus.

Thanks again for reading. Please tell me your opinions about the chapter in the reviews since I feel my writing style has slipped. The final chapter should be up soon hopefully!


	21. Chapter 21

I want apologize greatly to everyone. You all have been waiting so patiently for the last chapter and I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I've been so busy writing the first few chapters of a couple other stories as well as editing my current ones that I pushed this further and further back. But at last I got off my procrastinating butt and wrote the conclusion to this series of one-shots. Thank you everyone who stuck with me until the end. It means a lot. :)

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><p>From inside the Ou's Key, Astral was growing a bit concerned. The key hadn't picked up any emotions from Yuma since that morning while the boy was rushing to school. At first the spirit assumed Yuma was merely uninterested in whatever he was learning, but the disinterest shouldn't have lasted this long. Curious as to what could be going on, Astral materialized outside the key.<p>

The first thing he noticed was that he was not in Yuma's school. He was inside Heartland Park, the people there enjoying their beautiful morning by jogging or riding bicycles. Here and there Astral spotted a few dogs running around. Astral looked down, ready to question Yuma skipping class but ended up blinking in surprise. Rather than his key hanging around the neck of his friend, it was instead in the grasp of a familiar young boy walking rather calmly along the trail.

"Haruto."

The boy with amber eyes looked up at the spirit impassively.

"Haruto, what are you doing here?"

"I want to know."

Astral was caught off-guard. "Know? Know what?" As an answer, Haruto pointed ahead, toward the entrance of what appeared to be an amusement park.

"I want to know what it's like. There. I see children go there all the time smiling. I want to know why."

"You've never been to an amusement park before, have you?" Astral didn't say it like he was surprised. He had learned a while ago that Haruto was constantly kept locked away, only able to look outside at the city from wherever his confinement was.

Haruto nodded once.

"But Haruto, how did you end up with the Ou's Key?"

"I found it lying on the ground. Did Yuma forget it?" The boy held out his hand for the spirit to see the necklace. The string was torn, and Astral concluded Yuma hadn't realized it in his rush.

"Can I ask that you hold on to it until we find Yuma? He's in school, so we can't give it to him now." Again, Haruto nodded once before continuing toward the fair grounds. Inside, excited children ran about in a hurry to get on the various rides while older siblings and parents struggled to keep up with the energetic young ones. No one paid any mind to the escaped child and invisible spirit.

"Say kid, need some tickets?"

Haruto turned to see a slightly burly man standing behind a stand. The man gestured for the boy to come closer. "I've never seen you here before, and that's saying something from someone who's seen more kids than he can count. If you want to ride, you're going to need some tickets or a band."

"Yuma had to buy a band to get on the rides," Astral informed Haruto, "I'm still not sure why but he said it was worth more than the slips of paper."

"But I have no money," Haruto said nonchalantly to the spirit.

"No money?" the ticket giver looked sincerely surprised before he lowered his voice and whispered, "Listen, I think every kid should have a right to have fun at an amusement park at least once in their life. Here, if you keep quiet about this, I can scrap you a few tickets."

He handed Haruto four slips. The boy voiceless accepted them and bowed his head politely. Past the park's entrance, numerous attractions caught the boys' eyes. Mystified by the workings of the rides, Haruto wandered over to a miniature building. The sign hanging over the door read "House of Mirrors".

"What's this?"

"I'm assuming it's exactly what the signs says," replied Astral, though also unsure of what lay within. Another park worker stood by the door, ready to accept one of Haruto's tickets before letting him inside. A dozen fearless eyes stared back at Haruto and Astral as they entered the mansion. One hand held a little ahead of his body, the young child slowly felt his way through the labyrinth of mirrors.

At first feeling his way blindly seemed to work for him, but soon Haruto began to stumble and hesitate, his countless reflections drawing his eyes away from true passageways. Though he knew he'd never show it, Astral was aware of the growing sense of apprehension coming from his current charge. He floated around, unaffected by the mirrors' trick due to a lack of reflection. "Haruto, this way."

The boy hesitated for only a split second, but he turned and maneuvered his way to where Astral floated. The process was soon repeated- Astral floating some ways ahead and Haruto following behind without colliding into any mirrors. It wasn't long before the two eventually made it out.

They had to shield their eyes from the sun as they stepped outside. "That was…interesting," Astral spoke up, a small smile on his face. Haruto looked as impassive as ever.

"Nothing more than a maze and mere tricks is all it takes to be entertained? No. Something is missing. There's more that's needed." Astral was tempted to answer Haruto, to confirm that, yes, there was more needed in this attraction or any of them for that matter. But he realized now was not the right time to tell him what it was.

"Why don't we try the sky lift? Yuma said it was akin to flying for humans."

"Flying?" Haruto almost laughed, but he didn't look as if he opposed the idea. They slinked through the crowd going mostly ignored by all the eager children and their parents. The line was very short and two minutes later Haruto was seated in the car and slowly moving over the park. He and Astral watched the people on the ground scatter about finding rides and friends, kids comparing prizes and face paintings with each other. Then something caught Astral's sharp gaze.

"Haruto…" The boy turned his head, looking toward where the spirit was indicating.

Far below them, no bigger than a bug to them, a blond-hair boy walked calmly through the crowd, almost parting it as he stepped. His dark cloak made him stand out greatly in the bright carnival grounds. His attention was straight ahead as if he was on a mission and nothing would divert him from it. Beside him was a strange robot who, unlike him, was looking around in every direction.

"Onii-sama?"

There was no way for Kaito to hear him for Haruto barely whispered his name. Regardless, the moment the name swept past his lips, the older brother's eyes instantly shifted skyward and connected with Haruto's. A silent message was communicated between them, Astral could tell. Kaito immediately turned to the exit of the sky lift ride, ready to greet his brother. Orbital 7 immediately followed suit.

Five minutes later, Haruto was back on the ground where Kaito was waiting. "Haruto, what are you doing here?" were probably going to be his first words, but Orbital 7 was faster and rushed over to the boy.

"Haruto-sama! We've been looking everywhere for you! Why'd you leave the tower? Why are you here? How did-?"

"Quiet," the older brother ordered, and the robot instantly fell silent.

"I saw the children were happy here. I wanted to know why." The simple answer caused the older sibling to pause.

"Then it's good I found you here before…" But he didn't finish. "Anyway, we should go. Your escapades will cause them to be more careful with you, which is the last thing we need now." A glitter caught his attention. "Haruto, what's that?" Astral looked down nervously as the younger boy pulled out the Ou's Key from his pocket.

"This is Astral's key. Yuma forgot it. I promised Astral I'd hold on to it until we find him."

Orbital 7 gasped. "That's excellent! We can lure out that fool Tsukumo and obtain the Numbers cards in his possession. Better still, we can unlock the secrets of the Key and the Astral World!" An audible growl could be heard from Kaito, yet he made no move to take the key, to Astral's astonishment.

"…He should be fortunate it was you who found the key." He led his brother off the platform.

Astral couldn't help noticing how much more relax Haruto's aura became after the brothers reunited. Haruto was a little more eager to recommend rides, Kaito silently trailing behind. From time to time the spirit was even able to catch a glimpse of Haruto's and even Kaito's rare smiles. There were times when Haruto would inadvertently remind Kaito of Astral's presence, causing Astral to glance nervously at his enemy. But aside from a sudden icy glare Kaito seemed very tolerant of his invisible rival hanging around them.

The two brothers plus Astral went on ride after ride, played game after game, until the sun began to slip sleepily behind the tents and stands. The visitors slowly made their way to the gates, children sneaking in a last game or two before leaving for the day. Haruto, Kaito, and Orbital 7 made sure to be in the midst of the crowd should unwanted eyes be trying to find them.

As the sky darkened and the moon rose, the brothers made a quick stop. It wasn't a fancy place, but the carnival didn't have any stalls that sold caramel. Kaito bought a small pouch just for Haruto. "Something small," he said as he placed the bag in his brother's hand. The younger boy held onto the bag tightly as if it was the most treasured thing in the world to him.

They continued their walk home, a peaceful silence having fallen upon the four of them- that is until the sound of someone's shouting broke it. "Gaah! Where is it?"

The two brothers stopped in their tracks, looking toward the source. Yuma was crawling around on the ground, his attention completely not on them. To them, he seemed to be looking for something.

Kaito looked a mix between yelling at the boy to stop being so idiotic and…something else. What was it? Astral couldn't tell.

"Yuma." The spiky-hair boy turned when Haruto's soft voice called him.

"Oh, hey Haruto…" It didn't take long to figure why Haruto was out and about. Yuma and Kaito locked eyes but otherwise made no effort in commencing a duel.

It also didn't take long to notice to blue spirit floating behind them. Yuma got up and jogged over to them. "Astral! Where have you- you've been with them this whole time?"

"Of course." Astral looked down at his friend. "You dropped the Key and Haruto was willing enough to keep a hold on it until we reunited." Haruto took the Key out of his pocket and handed it to Yuma.

"Man, you're a lifesaver, Haruto!" Orbital 7 began to sputter when Kaito once again failed to take any action in keeping the key. Yuma then lightly elbowed the boy and grinned. "I bet Astral annoyed you the whole time, huh?"

Kaito surprised his foe by answering. "You'd be wrong. As much as I feel otherwise, I owe your friend a small debt." Astral, Yuma, and Orbital 7 were all confused by his statement.

"What are you talking about?" both Yuma and Orbital 7 asked Kaito simultaneously. The lattermost ignored them. Haruto looked up at the spirit.

"Thank you, Astral," he said quietly so that Kaito couldn't hear, "And good-bye."

"You're welcome, Haruto," Astral replied caringly, "But do you remember what you said back in the park? Did you figure it out yet?" Without saying anything, Haruto cast a quick glance at his brother, Orbital, and even at Yuma before returning his attention to his friend. Astral smiled, glad the boy figured it out.

Kaito snapped his fingers and Orbital 7 transformed into a jetpack, latching onto Kaito. Kaito picked up his young brother.

The two friends watched as the brothers flew off into the night. Astral recalled everything that happened that day, remembering how Haruto changed from a curious but standoff boy to a relatively happy and occasionally smiling child; how Kaito, a cold-hearted and ruthless enemy, seemed nothing more than a caring older brother. How strange was it that the very people you're with, the very places you are at, the moments you experience together, change a person. Nothing was as straightforward and simple as it appeared.

"Yuma, there is still so much I have left to learn about this world." The two stared after the shrinking forms of Kaito and Haruto.

"Believe me, Astral, you're not the only one."

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><p>And there you have it! The end of "Can I Eat In Peace?". I again want to thank all of my readers and reviewers; I could not have made it this far without all of your support! Thank you very much!<p> 


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